Drago: A Rare Bond
by Kestrel-Marie
Summary: Drago is a special bond forged between Dragon and human. An egg is stolen from Dragon Keep and lost. A young hanyou finds it and a bond is forged between him and the Dragonling. The first in recorded history. And in the distant future, war is brewing...
1. Chapter 1

Hi people... This is my first story after a REALLY long time. I hope you'll be kind to it and leave a review after you've read. This way, I can decide if I should continue on this story or try to embark on something better.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Inu Yasha. All other characters with similar names or personalities are purely coincidence.

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**Chp 1 - The Mark Of Drago**

"And so, to stop the violence against both humans and dragons, man learnt to revere dragons and form special bonds with the dragons and become their kin. That is how Dragonkin were born", the old man ended the story with much relish as he watched his captivated audience of one.

"Jii-chan! Does that mean that I can become Dragonkin too? Huh? Huh?" questioned an enthusiastic 2year old, his amber eyes alit with anticipation.

"Hai… Inuyasha. You can be whatever you set your mind to," the old man said, pity filled his eyes but was completely missed by the ecstatic child as he whooped in joy.

In the shadows, the young woman saw the pity in her father's eyes. She knew that he had lied for the sake of her son. Dashing away the tears that welled up in her eyes, she continued preparing their dinner.

What her father had not told her son was that Dragonkin, as far as history had recorded, the bond had only formed between humans and dragons. Never was there a recorded account of a demon having made any bond with the dragons, much less a half demon.

She loved her son and she could never hate him for what he was. It was not his choice. But her father had and so had many of her village.

She recalled the day he had seen the mating mark left by her mate and knew of her pregnancy, he had proclaimed her a whore and was prepared to cast her out since he assumed that she had not married. After explaining that she was indeed married, he had demanded proof. When Inutaisho entered the village upon her request, people scurried to hide but hatred gleamed in their gazes.

Her father's fear was palatable as he grew shockingly white upon the approach of her mate. Wary of the approaching demon, he had demanded to know the meaning of it. When she confirmed that her husband was indeed a demon, a dog demon to be exact, she was so afraid that her father would go into apoplectic shock even as she felt the condemning stares of the rest of the village burrowing into her back.

However, her father had been surprisingly accepting and though it took a while for him to accept the occasional presence of the Taiyoukai, eventually he was able to fully accept Inutaisho as an equal and welcome him to his home wholeheartedly.

Despite her father's conversion, hatred for demons still ran deep in her village and the only thing that had prevented any displays of violence or rude remarks to her was her status as the village head's daughter and the presence of her mate.

One day, during the absence of her mate and father, the villagers attempted to murder her by setting fire to her home. Thankfully, she had managed to escape with the help of her old nurse maid who woke her before the fire reached her quarters.

Hiding out at her old nurse maid's home was not easy for a heavily pregnant woman and upon her father's return, she learnt the bad news. Her mate was dead.

Inutaisho has been in a fight with another demon, protecting a human from their village and had been seriously injured. The foolish villager had taken the opportunity to deal several low blows to Inutaisho as he lay bleeding on the ground before returning to the village to claim victory over the death of her mate. Her mate had told her father to name their son, Inuyasha, before he passed on.

She had raged and wept while her father planned their leave of the village. But even as she wept, she had planned the death of the villager who caused the death of her mate. Her mate had died to protect the bastard and he could still claim credit for killing her mate. That alone made him lower than scum.

The next day, as they crept out of the village before the crack of dawn, she heard a loud wail of sorrow and a grim smile had crossed her face. Now they knew what it was like to lose one they loved.

For weeks, they traveled, bone-weary and hungry before they arrived at the village they had heard so much about, the village where demons and humans lived in peace.

As she claimed her new home and felt the keen loss of her mate, birthing pangs hit and very soon she was in labor to bring into the world her most precious treasure.

As she held her son and looked into his face, all she could see was the reflection of her mate looking back at her. Crying, she sobbed out the name that her mate had given to his son as his last gift and fell into an exhausted sleep.

From that day on, she swore that she would never see her son hurt in any way. But this was the one thing that was out of her hands.

Drago, the bond between human and dragons was formed upon contact of the child with the egg. No one had yet discovered what caused the bond to form. The only sign of the bond was the appearance of a jewel the color of the dragonling embedded into the left hand of the Dragonkin.

She just knew that her son would be disappointed. But she knew that she could not protect him forever. Maybe it was time to let go just a little.

"Kaa-san!! Jii-chan says that I can become Dragonkin one day!! Isn't that cool?!" the childish squeal of happiness brought a smile to her face as she turned to face her darling son.

Brushing aside his silvery locks, she looked into his amber eyes and felt the pang of sadness as she remembered her mate. Their son so closely resembled him.

"Yasha... There are times that you may not always get what you want. No matter how much you want it. I want you to be strong and always fight for what you believe in," Izayoi said as she gazed into her son's eyes.

"Why wouldn't I get what I want, kaa-san?" Inuyasha asked, full of childish optimism.

"Never mind darling… Go and play. But stay near the house. I'll call you when dinner is ready," Izayoi said indulgently and watched her son scamper off to play with the other two children he had made friends with.

-

"Hey Yasha! Look what I found!!" called an excited little boy, his purple eyes alight, pointing at a spot deep in the undergrowth.

"What is it, Roku? You know kaa-san said that we are supposed to play near the house!" Inuyasha said, his amber eyes clouded with worry, but curiosity warred within.

"Roku! Yasha! Don't go in there! I'm scared!" whined the other little boy, snot dripping as his eyes watered.

"Daichi! Stop being such a scaredy-cat and hurry up!" Yasha said as his curiosity won and he ventured deeper into the undergrowth after Miroku.

"Roku! Where are you!"

"Over here, Yasha! A little to the left! No! My left!"

"Roku, you suck at giving direct… Wow!" exclaimed Inuyasha as he burst into a clearing.

In the middle of the clearing where Miroku stood, a pearlescent oval shaped object glowed, sprinkling the clearing with sparkling lights.

"Roku! Yasha! Where are you?!" whined Daichi, but even then, nothing could break the moment for the two best friends.

"Roku… You touch it…" instigated Inuyasha, nudging his friend towards the object that held them both fascinated.

"Nah ah! You touch it. What if a GIANT dinosaur comes out and gobbles us up? Nah ah! I don't want to make the dinosaur mad," Miroku said as he shirked off to the other side of the clearing as Inuyasha approached the object.

"Come on, Roku. On the count of three, like kaa-san always says. Fair's even," Inuyasha said as he stared at his friend, his eyes pleading.

Miroku rolled his own eyes; he could never withstand the force of his friend's puppy eyes, no pun intended. Or maybe it really had something to do with him being half dog demon, he would never know.

"Alright, Yasha. Fair's fair. I'm coming," Miroku said as he reluctantly made his way back across the clearing to the object.

"Ready? One… Two… Two…" both boys held their hands a breath away from the surface of the object, "Roku… What comes after two?"

"THREE!!" yelled Miroku and tapping their hands lightly onto the surface, the two boys dashed to hide behind trees in case a dinosaur really came out.

"Nothing happened, Yasha. See… I told you!" Miroku smirked as he disappeared through the undergrowth, most likely to exit the forest area.

"Nothing?" puzzled, Inuyasha looked down at his hand. He thought he felt something move beneath his hand when he touched the sparkly stone.

One more time, he thought to himself, after all, nothing happened the first time. Approaching the stone cautiously, he pressed his hand and ear to the stone's surface, and said, "Harrow! Anybody home?"

The last thing he heard before he blacked out was an answering hello and a bright flash of light.

-

"Yasha! Are you ok? How are you feeling? What happened?" Izayoi questioned her son, shaking him awake, the panic in her voice rising by several notches.

"Kaa-san? My left hand is itchy and I'm sleepy…" murmured Inuyasha with a small yawn as he snuggled up to his mother and promptly fell asleep again.

"His hand?" Izayoi was puzzled, turning his left hand over, she received a great shock. "The mark of Drago?!"

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Writer's Note:

Yes... I know. Great shock, right?

If you like this story, please leave me a review. Your reviews will be of immense help and I'll be able to judge the quality of my content and writing. I aim to please. So please share your opinions with me. No flaming or bashing please. Only CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for all your support and without much further a do, this is the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Inu Yasha. All other characters with similar names or personalities are purely coincidence.

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**Chp 2 - The Key**

A battalion of soldier led by their recently appointed commander entered the room and knelt on the floor, reluctance and dread shimmered off each and every one of them, more so for the commander.

"Where is the egg?" the insidious whisper came from the shadows.

"We l-lost it, my Lord," answered the trembling commander, his fear evident as sweat pearled on his face and dripped onto the ground.

"LOST IT?!" the whispered swelled into a yell, which caused the soldiers gathered to cower.

All the soldiers remained silent, not one daring to say a thing.

"How?" the voice sounded reasonable, but still none dared to answer and finally, his patience gave way, "HOW?!"

"We we-were pur-pursued and we lost the egg," replied the commander, his response triggered by the yell.

"That is not a good enough excuse for me to allow you to live," upon hearing that response, the commander turned to flee. In the blink of an eye and a gruesome dying yell, his head was cleanly lobbed off his neck, blood spattering everywhere.

"Now. FIND THAT EGG!"

The collective soldier body stood and marched out of the room, the desire to escape ran strongly in their veins, but none of them dared for there would be harsh punishment for those that did. Evidences of a few soldiers' brave attempt at deflection were mounted on pikes, their faces frozen forever in the throes of death, a grim reminder.

-

The fire in the large common room of the village head's house cackled brightly and cast a pleasant light upon on all gathered. Kazuma, the 5th village head, the youngest to be given such a responsibility sat on a short dais with the village Elders gathered around him. Worry and trepidation were etched into his every feature.

Murmurs grew in volume, the night was late and the sun had set long ago, many wondered what serious matter they had been dragged across the village in the dead of the night to attend to.

"Elders, we have gathered this eve to discuss a serious matter," Kazuma said in a grave tone, addressing all present.

"Izayoi, bring it in," Kazuma said, beckoning her forward encouragingly.

Lifting Inuyasha off her lap and laying him down as gently as possible so as to not awaken him, she stood and picked up the basket beside her.

There was nothing extraordinary about the basket; in fact, it looked like something that any of the women in the village owed. It was woven with reeds from the nearby river. But what interested those gathered was that the basket was packed tightly around a rounded object covered in cloth.

As Izayoi set it down, the noise in the room died until only silence reigned. Many were curious about the bundle she had set before them, having watched her cradle it as carefully as a precious treasure.

"What is it?" asked an old crone, Takaho was one of the oldest in the village still alive. There were only three others who could claim to be as old as her, but none possessed her courage or her wisdom.

"Izayoi, show them what Inuyasha found,"

Gingerly lifting the cloth, Izayoi revealed her son's precious treasure. The room was flooded with the brilliance of the object revealed.

"A Dragon's egg!" exclaimed Takaho, her prune-like eyes widening in surprise.

"A Dragon's egg? Takaho-san, are you sure?" Kazuma asked, surprised displayed on his features. Whispers flowed from one end of the room to the other, questions about

"Hai… I am not mistaken. Why, I remember the day Kaede and Kikyo became Dragonkin. Twas' a proud day for all of us. But that was many a generation ago, when I was but a wee bairn not higher than my mother's knee. But we have not had one of our own become Dragonkin since demon blood was mixed into our heritage," remarked Takaho as she gazed fondly at the Dragon's egg.

"Will it become a threat to our village? Dragons and Dragonkin have never ventured this far out of their territory before. What is an egg doing near our village?" questioned another Elder, his wizen face made him appear much older than Takaho, when in fact, he was her son.

"I have never had experiences with wild Dragons before. But a dragonling is intelligent enough to know not to harm those who feed it. But…" Takaho was rudely cut off by a snort from one of the younger members gathered.

"Intelligent enough?!" The young man questioned his tone incredulous, "Dragons are mere creatures, it will probably bite your hand off if you get too near it!"

"Foolish youth! That stupid presumption is what started the Dragon Wars. Haven't you heard the tales of Goji the First? He was the first Dragonkin. He proved that Dragons and even dragonlings were smarter than whelps like you!" Takaho bit out vehemently, her anger that the youths of the present day were less wise about such issues.

Silence was pronounced after Takaho's reprimand of the youth, who promptly sank into sullen anger.

"As I was saying and which Takuya pointed out, I have never known a Dragon egg to be this far from the Dragon keep. The only time they bring eggs out from the keep is when none in their keep are claimed as Dragonkin. Then, they scour across countries to find one who the egg will respond to. 'Tis still a mystery what the dragonling within searches for," Takaho said, sharing her wisdom with the rest.

None in their village have heard of the ins and outs of Dragons before since none ever ask. It had been ages, as Takaho had pointed out, since one of their own had become Dragonkin.

They had always assumed that Dragonkin had looked over their village once they had mixed blood with demons. After all, there had never been a bond between Dragons and demon-kind.

"Izayoi, have you touched it?" Takaho asked her attention on Izayoi.

"Yes Ma'am, I touched it," Izayoi answered, her fingers fidgeting.

"Call me Takaho. Did… Did anything happen?"

"No, Takaho-san, nothing happened."

Instantly, Takaho's gaze was drawn over to the sleeping form of Inuyasha.

"Kazuma, you said that Inuyasha found it?"

"Hai, Takaho-san, Miroku and Inuyasha both, but it was Miroku who alerted Izayoi when he found Inuyasha unconscious," Kazuma replied, puzzled as to where this conversation was heading.

"Did you know, most dragonlings respond to young children better than trained warriors? I guess it's something about the innocence of children that makes it easier for them to form bonds" Takaho commented.

"Izayoi, show me Inuyasha's left hand."

Reluctantly, Izayoi reached over and turned Inuyasha's hand over to expose the newly formed mark of Drago.

"The mark of Drago! Impossible! How?!" Takaho exclaimed, astonished to see the pure white gem embedded into the child's hand.

"I don't know, Takaho-san. When I found Inuyasha, the jewel was already on his hand. I tried to pry it off…" Izayoi was immediately interrupted.

"NEVER! I repeat, never try to remove the jewel by physical or magical means. The jewel is proof of the connection between Dragon and Dragonkin. They sustain each other in one way or another. They share life, magic and power. Remove it and you'll kill both of them," Takaho pointed out grimly as she glanced around the room to make sure that everyone had gotten the message.

Izayoi's face turned a remarkable semblance of white as she reflected on what she had almost done.

"The colour is pure white. I don't think they have ever heard of a pure white Dragon before. And… There is something different about his mark. I think Inuyasha has come across a very rare and precious dragonling. What it is doing so far away from its home and why it has chosen him… We will never know until the dragonling chooses to share it with us," Takaho remarked as the meeting was adjourned on the basis that the dragonling was not wild and would not harm anyone.

-

"Kaa-san!! Has it hatched yet?!" yelled Inuyasha as he hurtled towards the humble little cottage situated in a small clearing.

"No, Yasha… It hasn't hatched yet. You must be patient. As Dragonkin, you have to learn to be patient. All things will happen in due time," Izayoi said, as she continued tending her rose garden.

"But Kaa-san… It's been one… Two weeks since I got the egg," Inuyasha claimed, his brow furrowed in concentration as he stuck out two stubby fingers topped with a sharp claw each.

"Yasha… It's good to know that your counting is improving, but it's only been two days, not two weeks," Izayoi said, amusement and exasperation evident in her brown eyes at her son's impatience.

"Honto ni? Only two days? But…" exclaimed Yasha as his brow furrowed in thought, "Sou… It must be then…"

"Yasha!! Where are you! Do you wanna play hide and seek?" the sound of Miroku's voice traveled across from several huts away.

With a pleading expression, Yasha gazed at Izayoi, who gave in almost immediately.

"Yay!! Roku! I'm coming!" Inuyasha yelled as he ran in the direction of his friend's voice.

"Hurry, Yasha! I found something new!" Miroku yelled as he once again disappeared into the undergrowth.

"What now, Roku? You always find new things and get me into trouble. Kaa-san said that we're supposed to stay close!" Inuyasha rolled his eyes and complained even as he waded in after his friend.

"Look, Yasha! Isn't it pretty?" Miroku asked as he held up his prize.

"Wow, Roku… It looks like the stone on my hand. See?" Yasha held up his left hand in comparison.

A flash of light chased all darkness from the undergrowth and Inuyasha and Miroku were blinded by the brilliance.

"Yasha! It's acting weird! Yasha?" Miroku asked blindly, assuming that Inuyasha was still beside him.

When his eyes adjusted to the intensity of the light, he saw Inuyasha floating horizontally in the centre of a clearing surrounded by a white light; the vegetation looked like they had been flattened by a giant hand.

Inuyasha appeared to be asleep and the pretty pendant that he had found was hovering above Inuyasha.

"I'm going to get Izayoi-sama! Don't do anything! Not that I think you can…" Miroku said as he turned and fled, the image of Inuyasha spurring him on.

-

"Huh? Where am I? Kaa-san! Kaa-san! I'm scared!" Inuyasha exclaimed as he glanced around him, everything and everywhere appeared to be white.

"Are you… Mine?" A girl's voice bounced through the empty white space to reach Inuyasha.

"Who… Who's there? Don't hurt me…" Inuyasha tried to follow the sound, but it lead to nowhere.

"Are you… Mine?" The voice asked again, this time much closer.

"Who..." Inuyasha started as he turned to where he'd last heard the voice, "AH!" He exclaimed as he came face to face with a little girl.

She had black hair and wore a white kimono with a white obi with purple and pink dragons on it. The thing that scared him was that her eyes. They were mercurial silver with black slitted pupils.

"Yours? I don't wanna… Where am I?" Inuyasha asked, his voice trembling as he was close to tears.

"Are you… Mine?" she asked again, her eyes questioning despite their constant movements. But this time, she offered up something in her hands.

"What's that? Don't bring it near me…" whined Inuyasha, then his eyes fell upon what she offered in her hands.

"That looks like mine!" Inuyasha exclaimed as he once again lifted his hand to reveal the mark of Drago.

With a delighted squeal and a smile that lit her face, the little girl leapt onto Inuyasha and embraced him tightly.

"Mine!" she stated vehemently as she breathe in his personal scent with a happy coo.

"Yadayo!" Inuyasha complained as he tried to pry her off him then he stopped. "Ano… What's your name?"

"Kagome. Name your Dragon after me, 'kay?" she said with a smile and kissed Inuyasha on the lips.

"WAH!! My first kiss!" Inuyasha exclaimed even as he heard the girl called Kagome say, "Use the necklace as the key," and darkness engulfed him.

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Writer's Note:

Hey all you people, thanks for your reviews. They were really great and helpful. I'll try to improve on the story quality and character development.

Thanks for your support.

I'll try and get the next chapter out soon!


	3. Chapter 3

Once again, this story goes out to all who have reviewed and given me your comments. I'm really greatful for your support and it has been a source of motivation and help. Thanks guys!

I apologise to ickabod, if you've read my review, apparently it's an error from the website that states one thousand as 10 when you type it in numbers. I'll try to make each chapter longer, but it really depends on how my mind sees the progress of the story. Sometimes, it's just more logical to type out a whole new chapter rather try to make a chapter longer.

To aeryn, I'll try and put in the breaks, but no promises. Thanks for the input!!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Inu Yasha. All other characters with similar names or personalities are purely coincidence.

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**Chp 3 - The Hatching**

"Yasha! Yasha!!"

"Huh? Kaa-san?" Inuyasha murmured sleepily, yawning and rubbing his hands across his eyes.

"Yasha! Don't you EVER scare me like that again! This is the second time this week!" Izayoi chided even as she hugged Inuyasha ever so tightly to her.

"Kaa-san! I-I can't… BREATHE!" Inuyasha ended the last word with an audible gasp as he managed to struggle out of Izayoi's death grip.

"What happened now?" Izayoi asked, even while she turned Inuyasha up-side down looking for bruises and cuts.

"Kaa-san… I'm fine! Nothing happened. I think. I had a dream and I saw this girl, she was really pretty, but her eyes were scary. And she had this really pretty kimono on. Then she said that I was hers! And that I should name my dragon "Kagome". AND! She said to use the necklace as a key… A key for what, kaa-san? How does a necklace open a lock?" Inuyasha babbled on, even while Izayoi turned him over to examine him.

"A girl? Yasha?" Izayoi asked with arched brows.

"Hai, kaa-san, a girl," Inuyasha confirmed with a blush before continuing, "But she knew I had a dragon. I mean, I don't have a dragon yet. But I will when the egg hatch-es… Hatches! Okaa-san! That's it!" Inuyasha exclaimed as a blur of images filled his head and full of excitement; he wriggled from Izayoi's grip and raced for home, to his egg.

-

"Ji-chan! Where is the egg?" Inuyasha shouted as he burst through the doors of the cottage, startling the old man.

Clutching his chest in shock, the old man shook his head and muttered something about being too old to be able to withstand such shocks before he turned to his grandson.

"It's in front of the fireplace, Yasha, where it has been for the last two days. You cannot crash through the cottage like that; ji-chan is too old for such shocks!" the old man admonished Inuyasha but his heart softened at the sight of Inuyasha's cheeky grin.

"Ji-chan… Help me unwrap the egg…" Inuyasha asked, serious as he began to pull at the numerous cloths swaddling the egg to keep it warm, frustrated, he began using his claws to slice through the swaddling.

"Izayoi, what is this about?" the old man questioned as his winded daughter appeared at the threshold of the cottage, her hair mussed and her clothes ruffled.

"I don't know, Otou-san. Miroku came to get me and when I saw Inuyasha, he was unconscious and floating in mid-air. Then he came to, he babbled on about a girl, a key and then he raced here," Izayoi said as she massaged her sides to ease a stitch.

"Ah HA!" Inuyasha exclaimed as he finally freed the egg from the bundles and bundles of cloth, showering the interior of the cottage with brilliance.

"Inuyasha! What are you doing? The village Elder said that we have to keep the egg warm!" Izayoi exclaimed in dismay as she viewed the shredded and tattered fabric strewn all over her cottage.

"I'm going to unlock the egg, kaa-san," Inuyasha said in all seriousness as he palmed the white jeweled pendant so alike the stone on his hand.

"Un-lock?" Izayoi asked at the same time that Inuyasha placed the stone into a slight groove in the smooth egg surface and pushed.

The stone sank into the shell.

For a moment, silence reigned; no one was sure what to do and what would happen. Then, as suddenly as the stone had breached the hard shell surface, hairline cracks crawled from where the stone sat to cover the entire surface of the egg.

With a cry of dismay, Izayoi moved to approach the egg only to be suddenly held back by Takaho.

"Watch," was the whispered command from Takaho.

Helpless, Izayoi watched as the cracks widened and light streamed out from within.

Crowing with delight, Inuyasha wedged his claws into the cracks to speed up the process.

'Hurry!' a small voice urged Inuyasha on.

Deeper and harder, he pulled against the shell fragments, tossing what he could remove heedlessly onto the ground.

Almost, he knew, he could feel it in his bones, down to his claws. The instinct of freedom was strong. For a moment, he felt as though he was the one within the confines of the shell.

Then, when a large enough gap had formed, he reached into the depths of the shell with his left hand.

Suddenly, a great burst of light and shell fragments showered the cottage and everyone hide their eyes against the blinding light.

As the light dimmed, they were able to make out the vague shape of Inuyasha.

In his left hand, he grasped a creature as long as his forearm.

Long and thin with its tiny wings spread out to dry, it was pure white and yet, it shone with iridescent colours. Slowly, the creature opened its mercurial eyes and surveyed the crowd with disdain.

Proudly, Inuyasha smiled and said, "This is Kagome".

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Writer's Note:

People, please continue to read and review. Your reviews are GREATLY appreciated and an important source of motivation. Don't be shy to share any thoughts that you have on the development of the story or a suggestion that you think the story could possibly proceed in to keep it interesting.

I'm open to ideas and I don't mind using them if and when appropriate. Of course, I'll definitely acknowledge the contributor of the idea.

So, till the next chapter!!


	4. Chapter 4

Don't worry, Ronnika, you'll see Sango in the later chapters. It's just a matter of time only.

ickabod, this chapter should be more to your liking, length-wise. I know I only scrapped the bare minimum, but it's the best I could do. Writing too long zaps me of too many ideas.

aeryn, I hope there is enough going on for you about the adventures that Inuyasha and Kagome go through. And if you look at the first chapter, you'll see that Inuyasha was two when he found the egg. And thanks for the heads up about the scene changes. When I wrote, I actually left a line to indicate, but apparently, when I posted, the line vanished. I put a dash to indicate a change of scene. Hope this helps.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Inu Yasha. All other characters with similar names or personalities are purely coincidence.

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**Chp 4 - The Growing Years**

"Any news, Kouji?"

"None, your Majesty. We have searched the Eastern and Southern quadrant and we have found nothing. We are currently searching the Western and Northern quadrants," the General replied, his head bowed in deference. Weary to his bones, he had been commanding the search for the Dragon egg that had gone missing for the last three years ago.

Thousands of his men had been deployed the moment the egg had been discovered missing. Despite the use of horses, the search was slow since Silvana was a big country and some of it was still unexplored. They had also sent emissaries to all their neighbouring countries but none had reported anything.

It seemed to him that the search was counter-productive. The men missed their families, the women and children missed their husbands and fathers. The fields were left untended as almost all the men had been recruited to search.

No one had explained to him why this particular egg was so important, but he knew better than to question. In cases like this, when nothing was divulged, it was always better to just follow orders.

But for three years they had searched and still their searching yielded nothing. He had been on horseback since the start of the search and it had felt good to return to the city even if it was just a few days before he had to ride out again. Solid ground had never felt so welcomed beneath his boots before.

He watched as worry creased the forehead of his reigning monarch. From this, he had deduced that the matter must be very important indeed for the King to deal with the matter directly.

"All right, that will be all. Rest a while before you return to camp. You look tired," King Kenji said before he turned to consult his closest advisor, the Minister Kabaji.

"What do you think, Kabaji? Three years and still no sign of the egg or its key, should we deem it as lost forever? How ever will we answer to the Grand Sire? He gave us one of his line and we lost it within a week," King Kenji remarked, a hint of irony in his smile, twisting his features into a grimace.

In the last three years, he had relentlessly searched for the egg. The Grand Sire had entrusted the egg of his grandchild to the Dragon Keep before he left to visit the Dracos. This was something he performed every decade, knowing that they would not come to him in a place full of humans.

A usual trip like this would normally take five years, but the Grand Sire had sent a missive stating that this decade, the trip would end much earlier than expected and he would be back in the next few months.

Oh! Kenji felt as if time was slipping away the way granules of sand fell through his fingers, but he had done what he could. It was time to face the music.

-

"Kagome! Where are you!" Inuyasha yelled as he crawled through the house, searching in every nook and cranny.

He still had not gotten the hang of talking to Kagome with his mind and so locating her was a little difficult especially when she had taken to the game she had seen Inuyasha and Miroku play.

Oh why did she have to take a fancy to hide and seek? Of all the other childish and simple games that he and Miroku had played while being five year old boys, she HAD to pick hide and seek.

She was definitely a much better player than Miroku and it would not have been so bad if she played fair. Inuyasha had developed a heightened sense of smell after his fifth birthday but she had learnt to cloak her smell, which explained the hell of a time that Inuyasha had trying to look for her. At least Miroku could not do something like that. This was the sixth time this week she had gone missing.

"You found her yet, Yasha?" Miroku asked as he too crawled around in Inuyasha's cottage searching for the mischevious Dragon.

"No… If I had, would I still be yelling for her?" Inuyasha asked, exasperated that after three hours of searching, he still could not find her.

"Jii-chan! What about you? Did you find Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, popping up behind his grandfather.

"Ouch!" was his grandfather's reply to him as a loud bump was heard from within the kitchen cupboard.

"Yasha! How many times do I have to tell you NOT to sneak up on me? My old heart cannot take these kinds of shocks!" came an admonishment he heard ever so often from his grandfather as the old man backed out from the cupboard to lean against it while rubbing the top of his head.

"Sorry, jii-chan. Well?" Inuyasha asked, rocking back and forth on his heels, anxiousness in his voice, his hands stuck in his pockets and a smile tugged at the edges of his mouth but he looked reasonably chastised.

"No, she's not in there," his grandfather said as he gingerly stood up and walking to the rocking chair in front of the hearth. "I'm sure she'll show up soon though, she just enjoys giving you boys a run for your money."

With that, the old man proceeded to take a nice nap after having performed his grandfatherly obligation of searching for Kagome in the big, dark, scary cupboard in the kitchen.

"Yasha… Are you missing something?" Izayoi asked as she breezed into the kitchen, returning from the marketplace where she had gone to buy groceries.

"Kagome is missing… Again!" Inuyasha exclaimed, near tears, his bottom lip protruded in a pout that was starting to quiver.

"Well… You wouldn't be able to guess who I found curled up, nice and warm in my shopping basket now, would you?" Izayoi teased, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha rushed to basket and lifted the linen cloth to reveal a thick snake-like creature curled up amidst the cheese, vegetables and bread.

"Arigato, kaa-san! I'd thought she was missing forever!" Inuyasha hefted Kagome up with his left hand and she promptly curled around his arm with her head nestled against the stone on his left hand, cooing happily before he ran to give his mother a kiss.

"Boys…" Izayoi remarked with a shake of her head and a twinkle in her eyes as she went about preparing their meal.

-

"The Grand Sire!"

With that announcement, King Kenji gave a visible wince and all those in court with him sympathised.

It had been four months since the missive announcing his imminent return was received and apparently, the 'music' had finally returned. Not that Kenji was looking forward to it. The Grand Sire had been around much longer than him and there were stories indicating that in a rage, the Grand Sire was indeed fearsome and it was a sight that he never wished to behold.

A distinguished gentleman entered the room. His outward appearance seemed human enough. His lean body was clothed in the finest white silk and his length of silver white hair pulled away from his face with several well placed braids.

Looking at him, one would assume that he was barely twenty years of age but his mercurial eyes swirled like liquid, a keen reminder of his non-human nature.

With a sigh of resignation, King Kenji stood to greet the Grand Sire, when the door opened once again to admit ten others. With a deeper sigh, Kenji moved to greet the members of the Grand Council as well.

"Kenji, what is the unrest in Silvana about? I've been seeing soldiers rushing back and forth but none will answer my questions," the Grand Sire asked, his mercurial eyes fastened onto Kenji making him deeply uncomfortable.

Silently, Kenji cursed his soldiers for saving their own hides and leaving him to the mercy of the Grand Sire.

"Well, Kizuya… The thing is… The egg's missing," Kenji spat out, unable to drag the inevitable any longer.

"Did you just say missing?" Kizuya asked, his voice calm, but his mercurial pupils stopped swirling and appeared to harden into hard silver slates.

Almost at once, all motion and noise in the throne room ceased. All the noble Dragons wore horrified expressions while the sky turned dark and overcast.

Lightening flashed, thunder rumbled, the earth quaked and the glass panes in the throne room shattered, scaring the human courtiers. They had never witnessed such as ferocious storm in their entire lives.

The noble Dragons immediately moved into action and began to clear the human courtiers from the throne, only the ever faithful Kabaji voiced his protests at leaving his King alone with the Grand Sire.

As the wind whipped around them, a single female approached them, alone and unafraid. She stepped in front of Kizuya, confident that she would be safe and whispered something into his ear.

Almost immediately, the winds died, the clouds cleared and Kizuya appeared to be rational again when he abruptly turned and stalked out of the throne room.

Kenji made a move to go after Kizuya but the russet haired female intercepted him and said, "I think you better leave him alone for the time being. He's just reigning in his anger at the moment, so I suggest that you do nothing to further aggravate him. This," she gestured to the mess of a throne room, "Is just a taste of his true power."

"As you wish, Hazuka," Kenji said and bowing slightly, he exited the wrecked throne room, pale and trembling, awed and frightened by the display of Kizuya's power.

Hazuka found Kizuya on the battlements of the castle, looking outwards onto the vast lands of Silvana. Above him, in the vast blanket of white fluffy clouds, a patch of clouds were dark and flashing with lightening.

"She's lost, Hazuka, a child from our flesh and our blood," Kizuya said, his voice sounded calm, but his mercurial eyes swirled violently, revealing his inner turmoil.

"One day, she will return us, husband. But for now, we must not give up hope nor do we simply hand Dragon Keep over to the Dark Lord. We must prepare well, for a terrible time is nearly upon us," Hazuka said as she too look out onto the plentiful lands of Silvana, leaning against her husband for strength. Her emerald eyes glittering with unshed tears at the loss of her grandchild and yet they also burned with the knowledge of possible foreseen futures.

-

"Send the Dragonkin out to search for clues. Using normal soldiers is a waste of time. I want to know where she is," Kizuya said as he convened with the Grand Council.

Looking at the ten faces around, he gauged that their emotions ranged from worry to furious to resignation.

His council had served him faithfully for almost two centuries and not once had they opposed him, but he had a feeling that they were about to do so now.

"All the Dragonkin, Sire?" the question was voiced by a lilac haired female, she was dainty of build, but her mind was as quick as a rapier and her mouth even faster. Her name was Yiliana von Stevinoff and she represented the Central quadrant of Silvana.

"Is there a problem, Yiliana?" Kizuya asked, he relied heavily on her opinions, so if she disagreed, he wanted to know the reason.

"I apologise for the loss of your grandchild, but are you being biased? If we commit all our forces to looking for an egg that we are not even sure of its whereabouts, won't we be wasting manpower? Also, shouldn't we be focusing all our attention on looking for the culprit? What if the same person or organisation tries to steal another one of our eggs? Was it coincidence that it was an egg from your bloodline that was stolen or was there a motive behind it? I'm sure not many humans out there know the significance of that particular egg," Yiliana said, her mind racing to analyse all the evidence she had been presented with so far.

Kizuya paused for a moment to consider the questions posed before answering.

"In my bloodline, a pure white dragon is born once every several thousand years. In that young dragon, lying dormant, are the greatest powers known to Dragonkind. She is a hybrid, born with all the abilities that when separated makes an individual Dragon unique. She is one of a kind. But sadly, the mortality rate of such a Dragon is rather high due to the large mass of power. My twin sister was one such Dragon and having hatched from the same egg, I've had the good fortune of sharing that kind of power. My sister did not survive her sixteenth year. She passed on the moment she came into her powers. So vast were they that they killed her almost instantly. So my concern is valid, not a selfish whim of a grandfather. Therefore, if she were to fall into the wrong hands and by chance, manages to survive her sixteenth birthday, we are in great trouble," Kizuya explained, calmly and rationally.

He knew that a passionate defence would only convince the Grand Council to vote against his cause, but a calculated and detailed explanation of what the egg could be would sway them in his favour.

In whispers, the Grand Council discussed their course of action and finally, Yiliana stepped forward.

"Sire, we shall proceed as you wish."

A shaft of relief sliced through Kizuya as a seed of hope took root. Perhaps they would find her after all.

-

Izayoi stroked Inuyasha's forehead lightly to brush away his raven locks. Since he had started developing his demonic abilities at the tender age of five, the dreaded hanyou's weakness had also beset him, a human night.

Izayoi knew that he detested this one particular night the most, the night of the new moon.

Having always had more acute abilities than humans, this one night stripped Inuyasha of all of his demonic heritage and left him bare, vulnerable and incredibly human.

It was on nights like these that Inuyasha crept into bed with her so that he could smell her presence. And of course, where he went, Kagome followed.

"Yasha, be brave. You have what it takes to succeed in whatever you do. Don't let a simple fear of humanity frighten you so easily," Izayoi whispered, even as she held Inuyasha closer and tighter.

He was growing so fast. The incredible had happened and he was now a Dragonkin, it was his dreams come true.

But there was so much everyone did not know. All the questions voiced at the beginning were starting to circulate again and even worse, jealousy had prompted some to spread malicious rumours about Inuyasha and he was only turning seven.

Some had even tried to steal Kagome. Not that she went willingly, but she was still young and small, being stuffed into a basket was all it took.

Izayoi worried and fretted every day her son grew older. He was reckless the way all boys would be. But recently, he would come back sporting new bruises and when she asked, he would claim that it was a friendly tussle. But she always spotted the hurt and pain in his eyes.

What was worse was that she felt utterly powerless in this situation. There was nothing she could do to ease his pain or protect him. Takaho-sama had passed on the previous winter so there was no one left she could consult on the matter.

Her father was ailing as well and this winter was especially harsh. The chill got to his bones and joints making them stiff and cold. It was all she could do to prevent him from getting any worse.

"Anata, pray, give me strength to keep our son safe. Watch over him and guide his every step," Izayoi prayed fervently with all her heart, invoking her deceased mate's name.

As Izayoi fell into a deep sleep, she heard a female voice say, "I'll protect him."

-

"Have your searches yielded any results?" Kizuya asked, his youthful face appeared to have aged several decades in the past several of years.

"Nay, Sire. I'm sorry."

"You may leave," Kizuya dismissed the Dragonkin with a wave of his hand and began to pace his study.

His five years were nearly up. Yiliana and the Council had agreed to let him search for the egg but they had limited his search to five years. And it was almost up. Where could she have disappeared to?

-

Running through the marketplace at a breakneck speed that only hanyous and demons could manage, Inuyasha appeared to be having the time of his life as he wove between stalls and dashed about to avoid being trampled by horses and their carts.

Occasionally, he would accidentally brush against a pile of goods and send them crashing to the ground so exasperated and irritated cries of his name were often heard even though not all of them could see that it was him.

After all, it did not take much to connect a silvery blur with a white Dragon loping behind like a love-sick puppy and a rather exhausted human boy calling out to him to stop.

With sighs and grumbles, the villagers would begin to rearrange their goods as if nothing had happened.

"Come on, Kagome! Faster!" Inuyasha urged Kagome, he could barely see her as a tiny white speck in the distant background, but he was sure she could hear him.

"Yasha! Wait! I'm still young! My legs haven't fully developed!" Kagome grumbled as she sped up and tried her best to catch up, but every time Inuyasha slowed down enough for her to catch up, he would speed up and leave her behind again.

Indeed, she was already running very fast. She was about the size of a greyhound now and she ran as fast as one too but no matter how fast she ran, she still could not catch up to Inuyasha.

"Guys! It's NOT fair! I'm human! REMEMBER?! You guys can't keep running forever! Come on! Guys?" Miroku paused for a moment beside a fruit stall to yell at Inuyasha and Kagome while pausing to catch his breath. Not that yelling helped his breathing very much. With each breath he took, the silver blur and white speck grew smaller and further away.

"Looks like they'll outrun you forever, Miroku," a grizzly old man said as he set up the fruit stall.

"Oh shut up, ji-ji," Miroku snapped, annoyance laced his tone.

"I feel hurt, Miroku. I bring you up after all these years and this is how you treat your grandfather?" the old man asked, his tone the exact opposite of sad.

"You're not my biological grandfather!" Miroku stated with a roll of his eyes. Seriously, the old man could get so sickeningly sentimental for all the wrong reasons.

"Roku! What kept you? Kagome and I raced to the sacred tree and back already!" Inuyasha said, full of excitement and not even breathing hard.

"Oh suck it already. Couldn't you run a little slower?" Miroku asked, annoyed that Inuyasha had forgotten all about him.

"I did run slower this time," Inuyasha exclaimed hotly before he was interrupted by Miroku.

"For Kagome, maybe… But you seem to have forgotten that I'm… Hmn… Let's see… HUMAN?!" Miroku exclaimed, thoroughly exasperated at the sight of Inuyasha's sheepish grin. "You forgot all about me, didn't you?"

"Um… No…" Inuyasha looked at the ground, refused to look at Miroku in the eye; his attention appeared to be drawn to a mound of dirt.

"Yasha! Look at me and tell me the truth! You forgot all about me, didn't you?" Miroku demanded crossing his arms as his foot tapped a steady beat on the ground.

"Oh all right! I admit, I forgot all about you! There, I said it! Happy?" Inuyasha admitted, not feeling the slightest bit guilty, instead he said with a huge grin, "But you have to admit that the reason you're the fastest human runner in village is due to all this training!"

"Yasha…" Miroku growled an almost perfect imitation of Inuyasha's while he tried to corner Inuyasha.

"Now, Roku, you don't want to do this…" Inuyasha said as he backed away slowly. He could almost visualise a flaming look of vengeance in Miroku's eyes.

"Yasha… Miroku stinks. And he's really sweaty…" Kagome commented in disgust, if a Dragon could wrinkle its nose, she probably would have already done so.

Upon hearing the comment, Inuyasha forgot all about Miroku and burst out laughing.

"What? Kagome said something, didn't she? What did she say?" Miroku demanded to know, his eyes narrowed in warning.

"Kagome said… That you-you STINK!" Inuyasha said the last word with a burst of laughter, causing it to come out louder than usual and all in the market place heard it despite the noise.

A deep flush crept across Miroku's face and with murderous intent, he began his advance again.

Inuyasha, much wiser now, immediately dashed off out of the reach of Miroku's hands with his favourite last line, "Race you!"

With a shout of annoyance, Miroku immediately chased after him.

'Maybe kaa-san was right, boys will be boys,' Kagome thought with a roll of her eye as she strolled home, not wanting to be in the midst of all that rough tumbling and rolling that would eventually lead to kaa-san scolding the two boys. She never knew what it was all about anyway and the boys always told her that she would only understand what it meant when she was older, whatever that meant.

-

He was tired, so tired. For ten years, he had searched for the egg. When so many, even the Dragonkin had given up, he had continued searching. All the soldiers had returned to their homes after their fifth year of searching when the Grand Sire had sent the Dragonkin out to search for the culprit and the King Kenji had given them leave to reunite with their families and tend their farms.

But a handful of men, including him, had banded together because they believed that the egg was out there and so they continued searching; the King ignorant of their activities.

But such faith was not without its sacrifices and he had spent another five years searching amidst the wilderness and swamps

He had just received a missive from his wife nine months after a rare trip home telling him that she had just given birth to his son. He sorely missed his three daughters as well; his oldest daughter was turning eleven today. She had been just a year old when he had begun the search for the egg. So many births, birthdays, outings and festivals he had missed.

But he felt it in his bones that he would find the egg and so did the other men.

Stepping out of his tent, Kouji looked about, taking in the scenes that greeted him each morning for the last five years.

As the sun kissed the horizon making the sky to blush a pretty crimson, men stumbled from their tents, their uniforms stained and in various states of dishevelment. Their breaths misted in the cold, creating thin clouds that floated upwards.

Kouji rubbed a contemplative hand through the stubby bristle that grew at his jaw, surprised at its slow growth. It had been a week since he last shaved and now, it was just beginning to annoy him. Usually it grew so quickly, he had to shave every other day. Perhaps it was a side effect of the cold, he decided as he moved towards the campfire to grab his daily meal of mountain vegetables stew.

Though the men were sluggish in getting ready, by the time the sun broke through the foliage, the terrible state that the men were in earlier vanished. Now, they appeared smart and pressed. Even though they were on their own private mission, they never forgot that they were, first and foremost the King's own army.

They broke camp and began their search from the areas that they had marked off the previous night.

Hours later, after the sun had moved past mid-day and the day grew darker; Kouji felt a keen sense of disappointment. They had moved off with such high hopes, but he reasoned with himself that they did that everyday, only to disappoint themselves in the end when their search yielded no result.

Just as he was about to give the order to set up camp, a horse crashed through the foliage and atop it was one of his soldiers, a boy who had join their company with great idealism and had grown to be a good soldier.

The boy, a young man now, was out of breath and was frantically gesturing back at the forest from where he had burst through.

Initially, Kouji thought that the young man reported an invasion. But once the young man caught his breath again, Kouji heard the words he had been waiting forever to hear.

"In there… Signs… Of… A Dragon!" the young man opened his palm and there, sitting prettily in it was a tiny white scale that shone with the colours of the rainbow.

* * *

Writer's Note:

Thank you for your wonderful reviews! They have been very fantastic and they could be the reason why the chapters seem to come flying out from my head. So keep reviewing.

Just to clarify, in case some people still don't get what this story is about (Hope this helps demonprincess).

Inuyasha is a hanyou. Kagome is a dragon.  
Sometimes, when a human and dragon meet, it is possible for them to form a bond known as Drago and from then on, the humans are known as Dragonkin. No one knows what the dragon looks for in the human when it forms the bond. But it is the dragon's choice.  
But the miraculous happens and suddenly, a hanyou is chosen. It has never been recorded in history before of anyone with demon heritage forming a bond with a dragon. So Inuyasha is the first.

There is a castle called Dragon Keep in Silvana. This is a peaceful country and the Dragon Keep is home to the Dragons and Dragonkin. The monarchy of Silvana works very closely with those in the Dragon Keep.

Silvana is divided into five quadrants. North, South, East, West and Central. They are represented by two members of the Grand Council each. So as you see above, Yiliana represents the Central quadrant. They keep the peace in the area and report to the Grand Sire. They act like the "mayors".

For your information, no one knows that the egg is a girl. It's just that all eggs are referred to as "she" until a definite gender is known. Opposite of the English language where all are referred to as he. I just couldn't refer to the dragons as it. It felt rude.

The key, is something only a Drago (you hear further details later) has. It is a result of the bond. Wild Dragons use their claws to help their young crack their shells once they are ready to hatch, since the egg is entrusted to the Dragonkin once the bond is formed, the key is required to help them to free their Dragon. The key only appears once the Dragon is ready to hatch.

All Dragons possess a special ability. If you notice (I admit that I very subtly mentioned it), Kizuya has the ability to control the weather. Hazuka has the ability to see the future.

I hope the above information is helpful. Some of it are spoilers, because they will be mentioned in later chapters. But I feel that some information is better shared now to facilitate your understanding.


	5. Chapter 5

Thank you for reviewing. Sorry this chapter took so long but it's finally here. Hope you enjoy it.

I'd like to dedicate this extremely long chapter to my boyfriend, who has always been supportive of the story and told me that I should post it. Without him, this story would have been left discontinued after only the first chapter with no one none the wiser. He calls himself my ArdentFan and we're celebrating out 2nd year together today. Hugs and kisses.

aeryn, your reviews are most helpful in helping me decide the course of my story. Thank you for asking questions so I do get clues as to how to proceed with the next chapter. You've been an immense help. Please continue to ask and review. And after reading your review, I immediately made changes to explain Kenji's reaction. Thanks for the heads up again. For the rest of your questions, you'll just have to continue reading to find out. .

Goddess1991, I'm not too sure when I'll post, but i usually post almost immediately after I have read through it a few time to check for hiccups and errors. It depends on the inspiration. Sorry I'm not able to give you a more exact time-line.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Inu Yasha. All other characters with similar names or personalities are purely coincidence.

* * *

**Chp 5 - Darkness Plots**

After the time allocated to search for the egg had expired, Kizuya regrettably acknowledged that, perhaps, the egg was indeed lost to them forever. Then, according to his agreement with the Grand Council, he focused all his energy on searching for the culprit or culprits.

After searching for years, Kizuya found that all the evidence gathered pointed in the direction of the Dark Lord, a sinister being that had been in existence for several thousand years. Not even Kizuya had ever come face to face with this particular fiend and there were many horrible characters that he had faced in his long existence.

None knew of his origin nor did anyone remember his real name or face any longer. All they knew was that he was responsible for the first civil war between the peasants and the Dragonkin. There were even rumours that he started the one and only Dragon war to result before Goji the First came along.

Between centuries, they would catch glimpses of his terrible reign before the Dragonkin defeated him. There were many losses and grieving almost seemed to be a national past-time.

In the last couple centuries, the Dark Lord had simply vanished and the people had prospered. The land was fruitful, everything was peaceful and the people no longer grieved.

But now, a war was on the way. The Dark Lord had, after two hundred years, emerged to wreak destruction.

-

"My Lord, we have sent spies to infiltrate the Dragon Keep and the Royal Palace of Silvana. And I'm afraid that the news doesn't bode well for us," reported a soldier, his eyes glued to the pavement in front of him even as he knelt.

Fear trickled down his spine and chilled him to the bone as shadows from the edges from the room reached and stretched towards him. It was all he could do not to get up and bolt.

"What news do you have?" the voice was dark and oppressive, it did not matter how many times he had heard it, it felt as though just the voice alone could arrest his lungs and prevent him from breathing. Swallowing to ease his dry throat, he hurried through his next sentence.

"The spies reported that the Dragon Keep and the Royal Palace have intelligence reports indicating that you are the culprit who stole the Dragon egg," his voice quavering as he mentioned the Dragon egg.

"Is that so? Good! Very good! You may leave," the voice was saccharine sweet, almost too innocent that it made his hair stand and gave him the chills.

The soldier stood and with a quick bow that betrayed his eagerness to flee, turned and fled without looking back. He heard the Dark Lord chortle in amusement, but he did not care. He was just relieved to still be alive.

-

It would soon be time and truly, it was a matter of time before war broke out. He could feel it in his bones. After all, the Dragon's egg was now gone. His soldiers had found no traces of it and from his spies' reports, neither had Dragon Keep or Silvana.

Around him, shadows twirled and swayed, dancing for him where they lured humans to their deaths. He could feel their disappointment that the human soldier had not complied and been drawn into their deadly embrace.

No matter, he would feed them some other human soul, a slave, no doubt. He could feel their hunger gnawing at him as if it were his own, then again, perhaps it was.

Ah! The sweet days of war to come… To be able to feast on death and destruction, to be feared and worshipped, he missed those days the most.

Now, he was but a shade of his previous self. This mortal shell he inhabited was wasting away. He knew better than to possess humans, but the situation had been dire and he had needed a host immediately. A dying human, not worth a speck of his attention had been his only chance at survival.

Indeed, the human soul that had been within passed on almost immediately after his possession. Weak, insufferable creatures, they were pathetic mouthfuls when it came to satisfying his hunger. Oh, he detested humans, but they were the means to his ultimate goal was domination, over all that was good and pure, that was his ultimate aim; to spread a miasma of poverty, fear, sadness and grief to the ends of the world. It was enough to make his feasting of paltry human souls almost bearable.

Obviously, there would be no good coming from leaving even a small army of good running about. At this, he cackled at his tiny joke and began to plan and make his next move to initiate the war.

Closing his eyes to think for a moment, he reminisced about the pain, suffering and the grief that gripped Silvana when he had instigated the civil war. Already, the thought of it made him long for more. What should he do to reap the same result without having it tracked back to him?

Ah! THAT might be perfect for it after all, he thought to himself, a sinister grin on his face as he crooked a finger at one of his shadows.

The shadow approached his seat and abruptly melted back into the broiling mass of darkness, leaving behind a pink crystal vial on the arm of his throne.

The Dark Lord picked up the vial and uncorked it. For a moment, all was silent, even the shadows ceased to move as they waited with great anticipation, to see the hell that their Lord would released upon the unsuspecting.

An oily mass bubbles out from pretty vial and coalesced into a small form at the base of the throne, glued to the Dark Lord like a little puppy.

Looking at it, one would only see a young girl, adorable with big eyes, a slightly chubby face and white hair, about the age of four. But if one looked closely, the cuteness vanished to be replaced with a sinister expression.

"Go, Kanna! Spread your malice to the world, especially those in Silvana. Touch all who are pure and innocent so that they may die a slow and painful death," the Dark Lord ordered and it vanished with a slight poof to do his bidding but not before it gave him a grin so full of joy and cruelty.

With a sigh of satisfaction of a job well done, the Dark Lord reclined into his throne and plotted his next move. It might take years before the next move was executed, but there was no hurry when planning would reap greater results.

Having used his power to command Kanna, his pet name for Malady, the Dark Lord felt weakened, especially when it drew upon his power to give it form. With a snap of his fingers, a slave was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the room. The soldiers, who had dragged him in, hurriedly departed, not wanting to be part of the dark meal that provided their master with his sustenance.

The terror that rolled off the slave's sweat covered body exploded like waves across the room, rousing the shadows. With eager hands, they reached for the slave who cowered in a corner.

Grinning, the Dark Lord released the shadows and chuckled with amusement as the slave futilely tried to claw their non-existent hands off his body, causing welts to appear where he clawed. The shadows attacked the welts, opening them and sipping daintily at the blood that welled up despite his struggles.

With a dying wail that gave the soldiers guarding the door goose pimples, the slave was engulfed by the shadows as they went for the prize that they sought the most, his soul.

Ah! The sweet taste of death, he could just taste it now and he relished those to come…

-

"Your Majesty! An emissary from Andarwin approaches!" announced a soldier.

"Andarwin? From way up North? We hardly hear from them! Send him in already!" an old man exclaimed his eyes widened in alarm.

As the soldier scurried from the throne room to relay the message, the old man turned towards the throne.

"What do you think it's about, Kabaji?" came the sombre voice of a tired King Kenji.

"I don't know, Kenji, I really don't know," muttered Kabaji, his eyes trained on the double doors of the ornate throne room.

"The emissary from Andarwin!" a boy dressed in green liveried, not much older than eighteen years hurried forward and knelt before the throne.

"Your Majesty, I was sent by a General from your army, a General Kouji. He is currently recovering at the Royal Palace in Andarwin. The message I carry has both good and bad new, which would you prefer to hear first?" the emissary inquired, his head bowed in a suitable gesture of deference.

"Let's go with the bad first. It's always better to take bad news with a pinch of salt," King Kenji Wincott of Silvana said wryly, unconsciously sitting up straighter to receive the bad news.

"Our intelligence reports confirm that the Dark Lord is the one that is responsible for the kidnap of the Dragon egg. Remnants of a trail; cutting through the Kenjima forest in Andarwin and heading towards the Wastelands was found. However, there has been no sign of the egg or its key."

"Yes, we already knew it was the Dark Lord a couple of years ago. But carry on none the less," Kenji said, slumping into his throne, crestfallen that there was no new development.

"Yes, well… That brings me to my next point. There has been no sighting of the egg. But!" Upon hearing the "but" Kenji immediately sat up straighter, "There has been evidence that indicate the presence of a Dragon in the Kenjima forests near the trail," the emissary reported.

At once, Kenji went on high alert. They had been searching for the egg for the past ten years and though there were clues, they always almost turned out to be false.

Of course, the indications would say that there was a Dragon present; however, he did not want to be overly optimistic.

It could be any Dragon; after all, there were several Sires in the wild with females so the report could turn up false. But, he felt strangely optimistic about this bit of news.

-

There are two kinds of dragons, the Dracos and Dragos.

Drago does not necessarily describe only the bond between human and Dragon, but the Dragons themselves. They are called Drago after their mark to signify that the Dragons are bonded.

Dracos on the other hand, are wild Dragons, un-bonded and answerable to anyone but the Grand Sire.

The Grand Sire is the wisest Dragon alive and he is fair to all parties, Dracos, Dragos, Dragonkin, humans and demons alike.

Currently, Kizuya holds the position and is the third Dragon to hold that exalted position. He resides in the Dragon Keep to ensure that his Dragons are treated with respect they deserve and that the Dragons are civil to the humans.

Dracos rarely sought his council because they do not have much conflict and also because Kizuya resides in the Dragon Keep. Dracos are wary of humans and so they would rather avoid human populated areas, hence, the reason for the journey Kizuya makes every decade.

Like humans, the Grand Sire is supported by a Grand Council of Dragons, most of which consist of noble Dragons.

But not every Dragon is allowed to sit with the Grand Council. They have to possess a unique trait found only in those with royal blood, hence, noble Dragons.

This blood trait allows them the ability to take on human form as and when they wish.

This ability was decreed mandatory for all who wished to serve on the Grand Council by the first Grand Sire, who made the ruling that all who wished to serve would spend ten years living as a human in order to gain perspective, then, any decisions they choose to make after they join the Grand Council will likely benefit both parties.

Indeed, the first Grand Sire was fair and wise and no war has broken out since the civil war with the peasants.

-

"Yasha! Don't go too far from the cottage! I don't want you involved in anymore of Miroku's schemes!" Izayoi resounded blaringly loudly through the glade at the back of the cottage.

In the bushes, Inuyasha and Miroku crouched as silent and still as roadkill.

"I told you!" Inuyasha whispered to his friend, clutching the rather hefty bundle in his arms closer as they spotted Izayoi re-entering the cottage.

"What? It's not my fault that you're the one always involved! You attract trouble like bitches in heat attract males. No pun intended, buddy. I just provide the opportunity," Miroku said, sniggering at the pun he had made in reference to Inuyasha's dog demon heritage.

"Shit, Roku! I shouldn't have told you about my dad being a dog demon! You haven't ceased with the lame dog jokes since you found out," Inuyasha gritted out, glaring at Miroku.

"I can't help it, dawg! It's all so clichéd. Man's best friend is a dog. And I'm 100 percent human and you're… My best friend!" Miroku snorted in an attempt to reign in his laughter, but one glance at Inuyasha's indignant face dissolved all his control and he fell to the ground, howling with laughter.

"Roku… Sometimes, you resemble a dog more than I do," Inuyasha growled menacingly as he crouched onto the ground, getting ready to pounce on Miroku.

With light spring, he landed on Miroku, his bundle laid forgotten on the ground as the two youths tussled and rolled around in mock battle.

'Yasha…' a delicate female voice sounded as though it had echoed through the surrounding glades, but Inuyasha knew better. No one had heard it except him.

Immediately, he ceased and stood up.

"It's Kagome, isn't it? She's hungry?" Miroku asked, he had come to recognise the faraway look in his friend's eyes as Kagome calling.

"Yea… We'd better get going," Inuyasha said as he bent and heaved his bundle onto his back.

"Sheesh Yasha! Stop showing off and give us human boys a chance to show off too!" Miroku panted as he followed Inuyasha who had set off on a slight run, not looking the slightest bit winded despite his HUGE bundle.

"It's all thanks to the dog, Roku. The dog, you so often make fun of," Inuyasha replied sarcastically as he broke into a full run, leaving his friend far behind.

With a pained groan, Miroku quickened his pace to try and catch up to his friend, something he was trying and still had not been able to do for the last six years, since they had both reached the age of five.

-

"Kagome! I'm here!" Inuyasha announced as he entered a rather large clearing. If one looked closely, it could be seen that the clearing was not natural but made.

A heavy beat thrummed through the glade and from above and with a slight thud, the creature landed in the midst of the clearing.

It was a pure white she Dragon but her scales shimmered with every colour of the rainbow. She was much larger now, measuring three grown man laid head to toe, from snout to tail. Her wingspan was the length of two grown man each and her teeth were now sharp enough to tear strips of flesh from a carcass.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha stepped forward and she nuzzled him gladly, breathing in his personal scent. Not that all little boys smelt good, but underlying the dirt and grime, there it was, something that smelt soft, warm and too good.

"I've brought your lunch…" Inuyasha proceeded to rip the wrappings of his bundle to reveal a deer carcass.

"Oh God! I thought you'd NEVER come! And that I was going to STARVE to death!" was all he heard before Kagome's stomach gave a rumble and she started to devour her lunch, heedless of the blood splattering about.

"Sheesh! Look at her go. You'd expect her to be more lady-like since she's a female," Miroku remarked, trying to wipe a smattering of bloodstains off his front.

With a growl, Kagome ceased and looked up, her mercurial eyes focused on Miroku.

Nervous, Miroku swallowed and apologised.

"Roku… She's hardly older than any of us. She's still a kid. As far as I remember, she's ten this year. And she still eats better than you. You always look like you've just wrestled your way through a culinary jungle by the time you're done eating!" Inuyasha remarked, remembering the last evening's meal.

"I do NOT!" Miroku hotly denied even as a blush crept up his neck to colour his face red.

"Tell Roku that if he ever picks on me about my eating habits again, he'll be my next dinner," Kagome commented nonchalantly, lifting her head to bare a bloody toothed grin at Miroku.

"What did she do that for? It gave me the creeps," Miroku shuddered; it felt as though Kagome was thinking evil thoughts.

"She said to tell you that if you commented on her eating habits again, especially since yours in so much more deplorable, she's gonna eat you," Inuyasha replied as skittered up the trunk of a tree as quick as a squirrel.

"Yasha! You'd let her eat me? And when have you ever used such a word as deplorable?" yelled Miroku as he tried to follow suit and clamber up the tree trunk.

"Deplorable, incorrigible, perverted, beyond redemption and blight on society are just some of the words I've heard kaa-san and some of the obaa-sans in the village use to describe you. Especially when you're flirting," Inuyasha said as he scaled higher into the trees.

"What do they mean?" Miroku asked, panting heavily as he made it up to the first branch.

"No idea, but it just felt good to use big adult words," Inuyasha said as he suddenly plopped down beside Miroku.

At the roll of Miroku's eyes, Inuyasha leapt from the tree branch to land on the ground. Looking up at Miroku, he said, "Let's see you get down now," before he clambered onto Kagome's back for their regular ride since she had finished her meal.

With a groan, Miroku began his descent, cursing and swearing as he had heard the village blacksmith when he had smashed a hammer on his thumb. Not that he knew the meaning to those words. But they made him feel much better.

"Why does he always chase after you when he knows that he cannot beat you?" Kagome asked Inuyasha, her head tilted slightly towards him even as she continued watching Miroku's highly hilarious, slow and awkward descent. Although right now, he was dangling upside down from a branch yelling for help.

"Hang on, Roku. I'm coming," Inuyasha said with a sigh as he dismounted Kagome and started up the tree.

In the distant background, Miroku yelled back, "Hang on? Is that some kind of sick joke? That's about the ONLY thing that's keeping me from plunging to certain death! HELP!"

"I'm not sure, but I think it makes him feel better to at least try and match up to me despite my half demon heritage," Inuyasha told Kagome as he casually plucked Miroku from the underside of the branch

Still holding on to Miroku, Inuyasha prepared to jump off the tree branch ignoring his friend's insistence that he was able to climb down.

"I can climb down on my own, Yasha!"

"You'll take too long, Roku!"

"YASHA!" was the shrill shriek that emitted from Miroku as Inuyasha leapt from the branch they had been standing on, which was about three stories up, still holding on to him.

"Well now… That went rather well… Shall we carry on with our ride?" Miroku said as he dusted himself off, trying to sound nonchalant despite the green cast to his features.

With a roll of his eyes, Inuyasha mounted Kagome and helped Miroku climb up onto Kagome.

"If he touches my bum again, he'll become Mr Crispy," Kagome huffed, a curl of smoke escaping her nostril.

"Roku, don't touch Kagome's bum," Inuyasha said, wondering at his friend's miraculous recovery when he caught Miroku red-handed as he inched his hand across the expanse of Kagome's back towards her bum.

"What?! I can't help it! It's this accursed hand!" Miroku exclaimed, proclaiming his innocence.

With a roll of her mercurial eyes, Kagome took off, much to the excitement of the two boys.

-

Kenji paced his room; the recent news that the egg may have hatched and grown into a Dragon flooded him with hope, rendering him unable to think. He just wanted to do something physical.

For three years, he had commandeered his troops to search for the egg. Kizuya had searched another five years and then, in the last couple of years, they had dedicated their forces to searching for the culprit. So much time had been wasted.

Though he spent years looking for the egg, he always remembered that his first duty was to the people of Silvana.

In the ten years that he spent searching, he had been married Princess Mizuna Delcato from Del, a neighbouring country whose citizens possessed extraordinary powers and their women were exceptionally beautiful.

She had bourn him a daughter, Princess Sango Delcato Wincott, and a son, Crown Prince Kaito Kohaku Wincott. But she succumbed to a plague that had hit Silvana just over a year ago and he missed her sorely. She had been their sun and moon and raising their two children alone somehow seemed more tiring without her.

Although plagues and epidemics were common, never had he seen such a death toll in his life. Tens of thousands had died around the world; most of them were children and those that served in the holy orders and Silvana was one of the worst hit countries.

Mizuna's screams of pain and suffering still disturbed his sleep. There had been no signs or symptoms, but slowly those infected would burn with fever and waste away, all the while screaming in agony as if the fires of hell blazed beneath their skins.

Oddly enough, all the criminals in the dungeons were hale and hearty despite the poor sanitation, lack of food supplies and water. He had noticed that most homes with magical protection had managed to escape, just as long as they did not venture beyond the protective barriers. This made him think that perhaps there was more to this current plague than met the eye. And he had a strong gut feeling that the Dark Lord was behind this latest death plague.

Sango had just turned ten and Kaito was eight, they were the light and hope of his life and he wanted to protect them and keep them safe forever, so there was no way that he was going to let the Dark Lord retrieve the egg or Dragon without a fight.

Kizuya had recently departed, albeit reluctantly, on his usual visit to the Dracos every decade and he probably would not return for a few more years.

With no one to confide in, Kenji continued to pace restlessly, when suddenly he halted. With a look of determination, he strode out of his room and began giving orders.

"Rouse the guards! Prepare the Royal carriage! His Majesty and his family wishes to ride to Andarwin!" the call rang out through the palace and although it was in the dead of the night, the castle awoke in a bustle of activity as they prepared for the journey.

Maids woke the children to dress them for the journey. Sango was reluctant in the beginning and fought all efforts to dress her, but soon the hustle and bustle in the palace got to her and she allowed them to dress her without trouble, excitement making her bright eyed and eager.

Kaito was a little more reluctant to join in his sister's enthusiasm and wailed at the top of his lungs in protest at having his sleep disturbed. The maids hurried to dress him despite his struggles, relieved when they eventually coaxed him back to sleep.

In less than half an hour, the royal carriage was leaving the castle grounds and heading towards the mountainous kingdom of Andarwin.

-

"My Lord! The spies say that Andarwin has reported signs of a Dragon in the Kenjima forests and the King has taken his family up to the mountains to investigate the claim personally," the same soldier that reported to the Dark Lord several months ago was back in the throne room and dreading every minute of it. He knew today would not be his lucky day. After all, this was really bad news.

"The Kenjima forests? So near here?" the soldier could almost hear a sneer in that question, "Pray tell, did the scouts search the area thoroughly ten years ago?"

"Yes, my Lord. We tried our best to locate the trail that we took in the dead of the night, but there were no signs of the egg," the soldier reported, his heart fearful and yet resigned, he knew that being chosen to report such terrible news was akin to death.

"Apparently, your best is not good enough," the Dark Lord seethed upon his throne, muttering insensible words that none but he and those who worshipped the Darkness understood.

His vexations were so vehement that even the shadows trembled in the wake of his anger. In a blink of an eye, the soldier felt a gush of air brush past his face only to die immediately.

"Go. FIND ME THAT DRAGON!" the Dark Lord thundered his fury palpable enough to cause even his shadows to seek the safety of darkness.

"Y-yes, my Lord," the soldier stood and scurried out of the throne room, thankful to be alive as he was each time he emerged whole after his reports. He was the longest to have held this position, his predecessors perishing after less than three occasions each.

As he scurried past the threshold of the throne room, he felt a trickle flow down his throat. Thinking it was perspiration, he carelessly swiped it with the back of his hand, only to have it return crimson. Staring in disbelief, he trembled at the thought that had he moved an inch, the gust of air that passed him would have severed his throat.

-

All his carefully laid plans were about to bite the dust and for what? Brainless fools who lost the egg in the first place. All of it depended on the loss of the egg, if he could not have it, no one could.

If he had known that the insufferable mortals would be so incompetent, he would have sent his lesser demons to retrieve it. But now, there was news that perhaps the egg was not lost and that it was no longer an egg but a Dragon.

A Dragon! Of all the ridiculous flaws that Nature could throw, she threw him the most highly dreaded. Perhaps it was her way of fighting back against his plots of destruction and devastation, after all, which mother could bear to see the loss of her children, human or otherwise.

A Dragon would never submit to his will, they had a resistance to his power that he could not explain; perhaps it was because, despite what the disgusting mortals chose to believe, Dragons were inherently pure and would not be swayed by his Darkness. Nature always seemed to be one step ahead, but she had disrupted his plans for the last time.

Thinking hard, he decided that he would obscure the presence of the Dragon, so that those in Silvana, especially those in the Dragon Keep would not be able to find it. It would, in the meantime, buy him time to search for the Dragon himself.

Motioning a shadow forward, it placed onto the arm of his throne, a clear white crystal vial. Uncorking it, grey smog billowed out from within and took the form of a young woman.

"Kagura! Fill the Kenjima forests with fog and obscure all signs of the Dragon, let no one see it even if they come face to face with it," the Dark Lord said, his voice firm, "I expect you to perform your duty and nothing else."

"Yes, my Lord," she replied, even as her ruby eyes burned bright with rebellion and she sought to break his hold over her. But eventually, with a clenched jaw and no escape, she vanished to do as he bid.

Using Kagura was perhaps not such a good choice, but she was one of the strongest demons under his command; however, she still fought the Darkness and as a result was not fully consumed by it. She fought his command at every turn and it took a lot to control her. But he could not risk the discovery of the Dragon and she was one of his ultimate weapons.

Now, the King might be in the Kenjima forests, but he could kiss the Dragon and still not notice what he had discovered. The Dark Lord chuckled gleefully at the thought of his brilliance.

-

"Kaito! Where are you?!"

"Sango-nee-chan!! I'm up here! HELP!"

"Oh my God! Kaito Kohaku Wincott, what are you doing dangling from that tree branch?!" the little girl asked, tapping her foot with her arms crossed over her chest, her maroon eyes flashing with annoyance.

"Nee-chan! It's not like I want to! HELP! I'm gonna fall!" the little boy cried, as he clung desperately to the branch that was hung a couple of stories above ground.

"Oh all right! I'm coming!" was her annoyed reply as she plucked off her silk slippers and hiked up her dress, preparing to mount the tree trunk, all the while muttering beneath her breath about little brothers and how much trouble they were when two other boys stumbled upon them.

-

"Whoa! Roku! Is this déjà vu or what?" Inuyasha asked, holding out a hand to halt Miroku mid-stride, as he spotted a girl about their age at the base of a tree with her dress hiked indecently high up her thighs and a little boy hanging from the branch of the tree.

"No no… Definitely not. It's not always that I get to see so much of a pretty girl's leg," Miroku replied, his attention glued onto the girl's exposed legs.

With a pretty blush, the girl immediately dropped her skirts to cover her legs.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes as he watched Miroku openly gawk at the girl and the girl, having gotten over her shyness, was glaring back at Miroku.

"My fair lady! I have an important question to ask you!" Miroku said as he dashed forward to grab a hold of the girl's hand.

"Well? What is it?" the girl asked, her expression puzzled by the excessive display of affection from this peasant boy, although his eyes were a rather pretty shade of amethyst.

"My lady, will you do me the honour of bearing my child?" Miroku asked, guileless and somewhat sincerely.

For a moment, silence reigned in the clearing. Then, a loud smack was heard.

"My lady! Why would you cause me such grievous harm?" Miroku asked, as he got up, a forlorn look on his face while he nursed his left cheek where a brilliant red hand-print glowed.

"Of all the insufferable…!" the little girl began to heap a tirade of words upon the hapless Miroku's head as he gazed upon her with adoring eyes.

"Hey! I hate to break up this lovers' tiff, but perhaps you're forgetting something?" Inuyasha interrupted her barrage of words, hoping to spare Miroku from the abuse, but then again, it seemed that his help was for naught, judging by the love-sick expression on Miroku's face.

With a frown, the girl continued to gaze at Inuyasha when she followed the direction his tiny claw pointed in, which happened to be up.

"SANGO-NEE!!"

"OH MY GOD! KAITO!"

Her horrified shriek was enough to awaken Miroku from his adoration and determined to prove his mettle, he said, "Stand back! I'll save your brother!"

"Sango-nee! I'm slipping!!"

Sango screamed in fear and covered her eyes with her chubby hands, not wanting to see her brother fall when suddenly, there a burst of giggles and a heavy thud. Puzzled at the giggles, Sango peeled her fingers away from her eyes and was confronted with an amazing sight.

-

"Kagome!" was all Inuyasha needed to say as the little boy lost his grip on the tree branch and headed for solid ground. Upon hearing Inuyasha's call, Kagome swooped from the skies above to rescue the little boy and landed safely.

Unexpectedly, the child who had been near tears earlier was enchanted with her; not many of the village children or adults would go near her now, with the exception of Miroku. Her size frightened them as did her teeth, so Inuyasha had been forced to build her a home in the forests.

In a way, the child was rather adorable with dark fluffy curls on his head and cheeky maroon eyes so much like his sister's, whose were eyeing her in surprise and incredulity.

-

"Here, your brother," Inuyasha said as he lifted the little boy from Kagome's back and tried to pass him to Sango.

"Is that… A Dragon?" Sango asked, her eyes wide with disbelief, not making any move to take her brother.

"Yes, you've never seen a Dragon before?" Inuyasha asked, propping the little boy on his right hip as if he weighed nothing, the squirt was fascinated with his Drago.

"I have! I've seen hundreds! But I've never seen a white Dragon before," Sango replied, her eyes going round with wonder as caught sight of what held her brother's fascination. "She's YOURS?!"

"Well, I guess you could say that. Although, if I remember correctly, I'm hers since she so often feels the need to remind me that she claimed me before I claimed her," Inuyasha explained with a pained sigh that gave way to a mischievous grin as Kagome butted him with her snout.

"That's because I DID claim you before you did," Kagome said, snorting in derision.

"Wow! She's beautiful!" Sango said, admiring Kagome's scales, making her preen happily.

"And you are equally as beautiful, my lovely Sango," Miroku said, without aplomb, roused into action by Sango's focussed adoration of Kagome.

"And you, sir, are a perv… Eep!" Sango was about to continue when Inuyasha interrupted her a little too late to say, "Kagome says to beware the hands."

And just as the said hands were mentioned, they curled around the curved of Sango's buttocks. A loud smack was heard and this time, Miroku stayed down.

-

"You got lost in the fog?"

"Yes, my brother and I were exploring with our caretaker when this fog hit and we couldn't see anything. We got separated and I only managed to find Kaito because he was in that tree," Sango related as they sat around a fire that Inuyasha had built to keep warm. The fog not only concealed their vision but had brought the cold with it.

"But Sango-nee! I was trying to find you! That's why I climbed that tree!" Kaito piped up as he huddled into his sister for warmth.

"Yes, now rest so that when Otou-san and his soldiers can find us, we'll be nice and fresh," Sango said as she rocked her brother to sleep.

Once her brother had fallen asleep, Sango turned to Inuyasha, all business-like.

"You're a hanyou, right?"

"What about it?" Inuyasha asked, bristling in defence.

"Calm down, just asking… Did you know that in all of history, Drago has only ever formed between humans and Dragons? Never has there been a case with the likes yours. There aren't many white Dragons around, in fact, I've never seen a white Dragon before. And your mark is different from the normal Dragos that I've seen," Sango said, thoughtful.

"What are you trying to imply?" Inuyasha asked, unsure of where the conversation was heading.

"That yours is a very unique case. But it could mean nothing or it could mean everything…" Sango muttered; the warmth of the fire making her sleepy, her voice so soft that Inuyasha would not have been able to hear had he not possessed superior hearing. Unable to keep her eyes open anymore, she dozed off.

"Yasha… I think we better leave before we are discovered. I like them, but I don't know what to make of the information she's given us so let's just be somewhere safe before we think it over," Kagome said as she hoisted Miroku's still limp body over her back.

"I think you're right, but let's leave them a present before we go," Inuyasha said, he really liked Sango and her little brother and with a child's naivety, he did not want them to go away empty-handed from their meeting.

He picked a couple of Kagome's scales and poked a hole in each disk. Plucking several strands of his hair, he braided them together and slipped each braid through the holes in the disks.

Placing each pendant around the necks of the sleeping children, he murmured a short prayer for safety and protection as he had always seen his grandfather do.

"Come Kagome; let us go before they wake up."

-

"Sango! Kaito! Where are you?"

Sango roused herself, expecting Inuyasha, Kagome and even the perverted little boy to in front of her, but all she saw was a cooling hearth.

Again, the voice came. "Sango! Kaito! Where are you?"

"Otou-san! We're here!" Sango yelled, recognising her father's voice. She shook her brother awake at the sound of approaching footsteps.

""Oh, Sango! Kaito! You're safe! You had me worried sick!" King Kenji said as he stepped out into the clearing.

At the sight of their father, Kaito started babbling about a boy with silver hair and golden eyes, a white Dragon and a really stupid purple-eyed boy who had touched Sango's bum.

-

Kenji just nodded absentmindedly at Kaito's babbling as he led them out of the forests. His mind was filled with a multitude of things.

He had been searching for the last three months and there was still nothing. Not exactly nothing, he had found a couple of opalescent scales and several tress bearing claws marks, but of the Dragon itself, NOTHING!

On top of that, a fog had arrived earlier this week and clouded everything from sight as if intent on halting his search. Initially, the fog had not bothered him although it had slowed their progress down tremendously, but now, it had separated his children from their maid and they had gone missing only to be found hours later. No, he could no risk the safety of his children. A moment's folly had urged him to Andarwin to challenge the credibility of the missive and stupidly, he had brought his family with him, but now, rather than risk the fog, he had the safety of his family and soldiers to think of.

Evidence of a Dragon had filled him with hope, which was perhaps the reason he had remained even though the fog that had beset them was so thick that one could not even see his hand should they stretch it out in front of them. But he would rather check with Kizuya before he attempted to search further than to waste precious manpower.

If the scales proved credible, the Dragonkin could be called in to aid with the search. But for now, he would rather return his family to safety. Perhaps, he would come up alone once he had returned them to the palace.

-

Sango walked silently by her father's side as he marched resolutely through the forest, his eyes had a faraway look in them that indicated that his mind was obviously somewhere else, even as he nodded at the right places to Kaito's questions and statements. This, she knew was a force of habit.

Kaito had a habit of babbling on for hours. When okaa-san was still alive, her father had tried to listen to everything that Kaito said and be interested and kaa-san often had to help him understand. But after kaa-san passed away, he had been busy and realised that Kaito was a storyteller and captivated audience all in one so all he had to do was pretend to be interested. So for the past year, she knew her father had not really been listening to a single thing that Kaito said. For that, she was thankful since Kaito was currently spilling the beans on everything.

She wondered why Inuyasha and Kagome had not stayed around to be introduced to their father or why they had given them necklaces of what looked to be made of Kagome's scales and Inuyasha's hair.

But since they had disappeared, she assumed that they wanted to remain a secret and so she would keep silent and so would Kaito, since as time passed, most would think his stories were wrought of his wild imaginations and indulge him by listening no matter how truthfully he spoke of their encounter with Inuyasha, Kagome and that perverted little boy. At the thought of him, Sango stumbled to a halt and blushed a deep crimson. Oh pish posh! He had outraged her modesty! And she was a Princess!

Pushing all thoughts of cheeky amethyst-eyes, she resolutely tucked her pendant under her dress and hurried to catch up to her father. They were returning to Silvana since her father had not found the Dragon he was looking for. Vaguely, she wondered if the Dragon her father sought was Kagome, but she had promised she would not tell. Oh well... Was her last thought as she clambered into the carriage to return home.

* * *

Writer' Note:

Hey people, really sorry this chapter took so long. I had a lot of scenes to mesh together and I had writers' block. Not the best thing to happen when you so desperately want to finish a chapter.

Please keep the reviews coming in and I appreciate all your input, so feel free to share. In a way, it's my story, but you all play a part in it.

I hope you guys are happy with the development of the story so far. If there's anything that you disagree or something that you think is a better choice for a scene, feel free to share and if i like the idea, I'll change the scene accordingly.

It's been great having you guys stick with the story. Once again, thanks for all your support. Couldn't have done it without you.


	6. Chapter 6

I just want to thank all those who have been on the constant look out to see if there has been any update or progress. I'm sorry that my writer's block has kept you waiting for so long and I hope this chapter meets your expectations.

Hikaridragonstail, Thanks for the heads up that I was taking too long with this chapter. It was all the motivation I needed to sit down and restarted the oily and rusted motor.

aeryn, I hope I have kept with the right amount of Darkness for you. Wouldn't want to disappoint, especially when I LOVE your extraordinarily helpful and encouraging reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Inu Yasha. All other characters with similar names or personalities are purely coincidence.

* * *

**Chp 6 - Death, Destruction and Darkness**

"Kanna… I think Kagura is being too efficient," the Dark Lord murmured as he stroked Kanna's pure white strands as she leant against his leg, her head tilted towards his hands.

"Do you want me to kill her for you, my Lord?"

"No… That would mean she would be free. We'll just leave her to defy us; she isn't doing much harm anyway. If I cannot find the Dragon, why should anyone else?" the Dark Lord said as he continued stroking Kanna and with a sinister grin, "After all, it's time to implement the next move."

-

"Your Majesty, Kanroku, Meicha and Makenta have reported sightings of large demon hordes at its borders," reported an emissary from the Western quadrant.

Already, the Dark Lord was on the move. Kenji had ordered every person with the slightest magical ability to add their powers to the barrier.

The Threshold as the barrier is called had been put up once Kenji had made the connection between the horrible plague that had swept through Silvana and the Dark Lord. As soon as the barrier had come up, no more had been infected although they could not find a cure for those who had already been infected.

Although hundreds of lives were lost, thousands more were saved and all were grateful.

But now, a new reign of terror was beginning, The War of Darkness. The Dark Lord had unleashed his demon horde onto the lands and slowly, reports were constantly filing in on the names of the countries they had conquered.

As Kenji sat and listened to more names being added to the casualty list, deep within the recesses of his mind, he worried about the safety of his children.

-

The War of Darkness as it had become aptly known was escalating terribly. Fights had broken out all along the border of Silvana, where it was no longer in Silvana's jurisdiction or they did not want Silvana's protection.

The number of lives lost was phenomenal and even as they recognised the cost of their mistake, the other smaller countries saddling Silvana's borders were being conquered one by one by the demon horde that had been raised by the Dark Lord.

-

Stroking Sango's hair, her head resting on his lap as she slept stretched out by his side. Her small warm body was a comfort on lonely nights like these whenever he felt Mizuna's absence keenly and she always came looking for him as if she somehow knew.

Her dark tresses were so similar to her mother's in texture and length, long, silky and thick, dark like his where her mother's were as golden as sunshine.

He missed Mizuna terribly; her quick wit made him laugh and her beauty always stole his breath. With her, nothing was ever dull or boring. She was the light and colour of their lives, compassionate and yet firm.

The Del were known to be a beautiful people with unearthly powers. But he had not expected to fall for her and he had even prepared himself for her beauty, thinking that their beauty was a form of enchantment.

The moment Mizuna had lifted her veil; he had been spellbound despite the many charms that hung heavy and thick around his neck. Just thinking about his foolish superstitions … Ah! What a foolish man he had been.

Indeed, the Del were blessed with gorgeous bone structure, delicate skin and fine features, but their beauty glowed from beneath their skin with an quiet inner radiance as if the Moon had gifted them with her essence.

Moonkissed was a favourite nickname used to refer to the Del, in fact, Moonkissed was used so often, 'Del' was soon forgotten and thought to be the parent race of the Moonkissed.

Sango was at the age when the Del received their powers, he could only wonder if she had inherited her mother's water ability.

The palace gardens had prospered the moment Mizuna had arrived and he had wondered how until he had seen Mizuna sing water out of the skies. He had been enthralled by her voice and stunned by what she could do.

As the light drizzle fell from the clouds, he had felt refreshed and cleansed. She had been shocked and appalled at the sight of him and had almost turned to flee when he reached out to her.

The Del Elders had warned her to keep her abilities secret as some Passives, a term they used to describe powerless humans, could kill her for possessing such abilities, witches they would be called.

Mizuna later explained to him, the water was imbued with her essence and feelings and what he had felt was her desire to cure to plants that were dying. This applied to all the Del and their special abilities. She had emphasised that their abilities were not passed down by bloodline, but depended on their character or desires when they chose their individual abilities.

But Mizuna had told him that Sango and Kaito may not gain abilities as they were half Del and according to the Del historical records, in the many centuries, those that were less than a full blooded Del had never gained abilities.

If only Sango and Kaito were full blooded Dels, they could still retain a part of their heritage that would constantly remind them of Mizuna.

"Otou-san… It's getting cold…" Sango murmured, still asleep as she burrowed closer to her father's warm body.

Reaching out to grab the blanket he had placed at the end of the chaise, Kenji almost missed it.

Brow furrowed in concentration even as she slept, Sango reached out a hand towards the fireplace and a small fireball shot from her open palm into the fireplace to cause a new blaze. Seemingly satisfied, Sango relaxed and fell back into deep sleep, her hand falling to hang over the edge of the chaise.

Time stood still for Kenji as he felt like he was transported to the time when he had first witnessed Mizuna's care for the flowers and more resolute than ever, he knew what he had to do.

-

"Chichiue! I don't want to! Don't send me away! I'll be a good girl! I promise!" Sango cried, tears streaming down her face as she clutched frantically at her father's leg. The servants around stood motionless, unsure of what to do, although they were ready to drag her into the awaiting carriage at a single command.

With a deep sigh, Kenji knelt down to pick his daughter up.

"I'm not sending you away. I'm just sending you to visit Kei-ojiichan and Meihou-obaasan. They miss you and Kaito. It's been some time since you last visited," Kenji said, hugging his daughter tightly to him.

"But we can go together…" Sango sniffled, slightly mollified.

"Otou-san has got work to do so I cannot go with you, but I promise that I'll go with you the next time, ok?" Kenji asked, teasing strands of her hair that had come loose in her struggle back into her ponytail, "Are you going to be a good girl?"

"Hai, Otou-san," Sango said with a sigh and with prompting from Kenji, gave him a kiss on the cheek before he let her slide down.

Kaito seeing that his sister was no longer upset ran towards them with childish giggles and leapt into his father's awaiting arms.

-

"Sango…"

Those were the last words to leave his lips as he was felled by a sword.

He knew that this day would come when he had engaged in battle with the Dark Lord's army. He had felt grateful that Mizuna's parents had taken his children in and kept them safe. At least, he had seen to their safety, his last duty to them as their father.

-

Sango sighed as she stared out the window, bored since it was raining heavily and Meihou-obaasan had forbidden them from playing in the rain. Kaito was off somewhere with their nanny, not that she needed one.

She had been practicing her fire-ball trick since forever. Rather, it hadn't been forever, it was a little over six months but it still felt like forever and she could now create one whenever she liked and she wanted to show it to Otou-san.

In his last letter, which arrived a month ago, he said that he would visit them last week. But Otou-san was late.

Otou-san was never late and now that he was, she was beginning to worry. The last time Otou-san had been late, he had come back sad looking and crying. Then he had told her and Kaito that Mama had gone to heaven to be with the angels.

She wasn't stupid, but she understood that Kaito was young and telling him outright that Mama had died… Well, let's say that the sight wouldn't be pretty. Kaito was the closest to Mama just as she was the closest to Otou-san.

Worried, Sango started to fiddle with the pendant that she guessed Inuyasha had given her. Having examined it closely a while back, she deduced that the pendant was probably one of Kagome's scales and the string had been made from Inuyasha's hair.

She wondered if they had understood the power they had given her and Kaito when they had imparted such precious gifts. Probably not, she thought. No one would have willingly parted with bits of themselves knowing that they had given away a boon to the person.

A Boon charm was made of either hair or nails contributed by the giver. And it signified any wish that the recipient could make and the giver would obligated to complete. Of course, the good thing was that such personal bits would have to be given willingly to make the spell effective. Castaways contained no magic at all.

The crudest and simplest magic of all had been unknowingly cast and with her recent magic training, she knew the feelings that came with her present were strong and somehow, it also functioned as a protective charm. She would have to ask Inuyasha how he had done it as soon as she met him again. Since there were no records of Boon charms doubling up as protective charms. But then again, probably no one had tried before.

Still deep in thoughts, she did not spot the courier messenger until he was racing through the lower arches. A dreadful feeling burned within her chest as she saw Meihou-obaasan read the message and then collapse crying into Kei-ojiisan's arms.

Racing along the corridors, ignoring all the protocol she had drummed into her since she could talk and walk, she burst out into the outer courtyard, the bright light momentarily stunning her.

Slowly, she approached the messenger and held out her tiny hand. Her bearing as regal as she could make it with every amount of royal training she had received.

"May I have the missive?" she asked, her tone was colder and more formal than anyone had heard her use in all the time they had known her.

"I… Certainly, your Highness," the messenger said, placing the parchment in her very tiny hand after he had looked to her grandparents for approval and finding none as they comforted each other.

Opening it, Sango read its contents, paling as she understood its implications, disbelief and sorrow warring over her tiny face.

Suddenly uncertain about his previous action, the messenger tried to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Sango straightened her shoulders with every bit of resolve she had inside her little body and shook off the messenger's hand with a cold glare. Spinning around on her heel, she stalked back into her grandparents' home, her grandmother's muffled sobs seemed to haunt her as she headed to her room, seeing nothing and hearing no one despite the multitude of servants milling about in the corridor going about their daily tasks.

Upon reaching her room and shutting the door, Sango felt her bottom lip immediately quiver and hot tears sting her eyes as they rolled down her face. Wailing, she sank to her knees.

"OTOU-SAN!"

-

"At last, the Great King Kenji has fallen… Who would have thought he would have fallen so easily? And not by my hand, but by the sword of my lowly minion! The DISGRACE!" the Dark Lord cackled, delighted and tickled by the strange turn of events.

As his horrid laughter rippled through his dimly lit court room and he could see those who had heard it visibly flinched at the grating sound. Their discomfort and fear, a delicious mix of ecstasy for him, especially on this momentous occasion; the death of his Royal Majesty, King Kenji Kohaku Wincott, reigning monarch of Silvana and Steward of the Dragon Keep.

Kenji, that mangy little mutt had spent his entire existence being a thorn in the Dark Lord's side, stopping his perfectly calculated advances with just one move! Moves that had taken him years to plan so that when he made his final move, victory would have been swift!

By far, of all his predecessors, he had been the most annoying, conniving and the smartest to rule Silvana. Now, if Kenji had been on his side, he would probably have full control of the world already, so great was Kenji's genius and prowess on the battlefield and in court.

He had even offered Kenji the opportunity to join him.

But the prissy little stuck up had spurned his advances, vowing that he, the Dark Lord, would not get a foothold into Silvana so long as the Great King Kenji lived. And oh so true to his vow he had kept. Not once during his reign did the Dark Lord manage to breach Silvana's gates, with the recent exception of Kanna spreading her malice.

But where was the great King Kenji now? DEAD! Dead by a blunt sword from a lowly minion that had managed to pierce his armour by chance.

But that was hardly what he wanted. No! The Dark Lord desired death, destruction and darkness. Sickness was just the beginning; death would be what the lowly mortals would desire with their every breath once he ruled them.

They would gladly kill who he asked in exchange for eternal respite. Not that he would grant them peace, he thought evilly.

He would torture their souls and make them watch their loved ones die and even at their very end, he would devour their souls and force them to destroy the lands they love with the new forms he would transform them into. Bloodshed, grief, gluttony, rage, disease, hate and oh! There were so many more forms they could take; just thinking about it gave him such a rush of excitement.

And Kenji's death was the key to it all.

"Now, Silvana is leaderless and weak! Now, Silvana will fall and bow to me. Now, I, the Darkest Lord of all history, Naraku, will rule the DRAGON KEEP!" Naraku said, his triumphant voice echoed through his castle, causing even the slaves in the dungeons to moan with despair and lose that tiny spark of hope and freedom they had been harbouring. King Kenji was dead and therefore, freedom was no longer a viable option.

As Naraku, Darkest of all Dark Lords relished in his victory, a tiny little waif was determined to prevent the conquering of Silvana, the last place of freedom the people of the Wastelands had envisioned as the place of their salvation as he snuck past the guards to warn whoever wanted to listen and were willing to fight.

* * *

Writer's Note:

Hey you guys! I'm REALLY sorry that this chapter took so long and if Hikari didn't give me a kick in the butt with that review, I probably would not have gotten around this chapter at all.

I need motivation and inspiration, so please read, review and even critique or question it. I need to know how to improve and to answer any questions you have if you do not think that I have explained something clearly or properly.

So for all those loyal reviewers! A toast to you! Thanks for your support! I really could not have done it without your strong support and encouraging words.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Inu Yasha. All other characters with similar names or personalities are purely coincidence.

* * *

**Chp 7 - The Calm Before The Storm**

The years passed quickly and Inuyasha was soon reaching his eighteenth birthday, an important day for all village males.

All sons, upon reaching their eighteenth birthday were sent to the local magistrate. There, they either seek permission to continue in their parents' trade or to formally request a change of trade. Occasionally, there were requests from the magistrate to certain big families to allow a son to change his trade to support the local community.

There were hardly any disputes and even if there were, they would end rather amicably. This was what they called "community spirit", since everyone depended on each other to survive.

Winters were harsh and there was little or no food left by the coming of spring. Neighbours shared all they had to keep each other alive, but even then, they could not continue in this fashion forever.

In the recent years, they were all near starving as the winters grew more difficult and people started to die.

Just this winter alone, there were fifteen deaths. And in a village numbering slightly above one hundred, it was very drastic number.

It was a blessing that they had Kagome.

A kind soul she was. Each morning they awoke, they would find fresh meat at their doorsteps. It was not much, but it was just enough to pass each day and for that they were grateful.

But on this morning, no one thought of the recent months where they had to struggle to live and experience the deaths of their loved ones. This was an important day, a day for celebration. And celebrate they would, with their meagre rations. And surprisingly, the meat on their doorstep had been in larger portions, as if she knew that they were going to celebrate.

-

"Inuyasha! Get up! You're going to be late for the ceremony!" Izayoi said as she unceremoniously rolled her son off his nice warm bed onto the frozen dirt floor. And almost immediately, Inuyasha was up and on his feet, shivering in the cold.

Snarling several curses, he hopped back into bed and tried to swaddle himself once again in his blankets.

"Inuyasha! That's NOT the tone to take with your mother, much less in the presence of another female!" Izayoi scolded, grinning slightly even as she tugged the blankets from under him. He might snarl viciously, but he would never use his strength against her, which was one of the reasons she easily pried the blankets free and proceeded to roll him onto the frigid floor.

"Yeah Yasha… In the presence of another female. Don't forget," Kagome said amusement lacing her voice via their bond, Inuyasha could almost see her giving a sharp-toothed grin at the sight of him being tossed out of bed by his mother on the day of his coming of age ceremony.

"Oh shut up, Kagome," Inuyasha snapped mentally, grouchy. He could hear peal after peal of laughter from her, as if she was mocking him.

"All right! I'm up!" Inuyasha said, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet to warm up, his ears still ringing from his scolding. His mother only ever used his full name when she was annoyed.

"Good! Now go get ready. I've heated your bathwater already. And your Jii-chan is waiting to see you become a man. And don't forget to visit Kagome. I know she fully grown and all, but you still to check on her. That is your responsibility as her Dragonkin," his mother said as she fluffed his blanket and made his bed.

"Keh! You didn't have to. I could have gotten my own hot water…" Inuyasha said as he headed out to the kitchen for his bath.

"Oh? And perhaps end up taking a cold bath instead?" Izayoi asked, her eyebrows arched even though she had a twinkle in her eye.

"Yea well… That was Miroku's fault. He was supposed to hold TIGHT!" Inuyasha muttered beneath his breath as a hot blush scalded his face.

"Sure!" Izayoi said, her back facing him as she tried to muffle her giggles.

-

Last winter, Inuyasha had tried to do something special for Jii-chan and her by getting their baths ready for them. And for that, he had to get ice from the lake to melt since that was their only source of water.

Having roped Miroku in on his harebrained idea, he had succeeded in cutting and dragging up three large blocks of ice, all he needed was one more. But having already carved such a big hole in the lake, the last ice block had floated free near the centre of the hole.

Inuyasha had tried reaching out to the block only to miss it by a hair's breath, so he had asked Miroku to hold on to his legs while he stretched out to get the block. But apparently, just as Inuyasha's claws had sunken into the ice block, Miroku loosened his grip for that fraction of a second. Inuyasha had let loose a triumphant yell which had ended in a watery gurgle as he sank beneath the surface of water and ice.

Now, if Inuyasha had been mortal, Miroku probably would have worried, except out of the freezing water climbed a sorry looking wet dog and all he could do was laugh.

That was how Izayoi had found them, drawn by Miroku's laughter when she had gone to fetch her bath water. Inuyasha had made it worse by summoning Kagome and having her fly him back, which had to be the stupidest thing he could have done in winter.

He had ended up frozen to Kagome's back, his soaked clothes had frozen up and his felt-like ears tinged blue along with the rest of him, a most hilarious sight ever. If it had just been Miroku and her, he probably would not have been so embarrassed, but the whole village had turned up to watch him being thawed off.

Inuyasha had been so thoroughly embarrassed it had taken Miroku a week to talk Inuyasha out of his humiliation and get Inuyasha to start talking to him again.

Boys… They just never grew up.

-

"Jeez Roku, look at what Kaa-san made me wear!" Inuyasha said, tugging at the stiff collar of his new haori.

"I think you look pretty in it," Kagome said, voicing her opinion even though it was not required, as usual. A chuckle of amusement escaped as she knew Inuyasha was blushing.

"I do NOT look pretty!" Inuyasha groused, still surly from this morning.

"Oh sure you don't, with that silky long mane of silver hair, of which, I should point out that most of the girls in the village would kill for. I'm sure you've seen the looks they give you when you walk by," Kagome said mischievously, sensing Inuyasha suppressing a shudder at the thought of the predatory eyes of the female population in their village.

Just last week, they had ambushed him and managed to hold him down while they played with his hair. He had barely escaped, in lieu of using his demon strength.

"Cool it," Inuyasha said, a tone of warning in his voice, not that Kagome bothered to heed it as he turned his attention back to Miroku. She just loved to irritate him in the morning, especially since she knew he was not a morning person.

"Wow! That's really cool… Hmn… But I've never seen a haori… Or a hakama made with this type of material before…" Miroku said as he first admired than inspected the material.

"Apparently, it's made from fire rat fur. She says that it might be helpful with Kagome since it can't be damaged," Inuyasha scoffed as he ambled down the snow ridden path, only to turn and find that his friend had come to a standstill with his jaws hanging open. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? You have to be out of your mind to resent this outfit! It's almost virtually indestructible!" Miroku exclaimed in disbelief as he hurried to catch up to his best friend.

"I thought Kaa-san was just kidding when she said that. What do you mean by virtually indestructible?" Inuyasha asked, his curiosity piqued by his friend's statement.

"Well… From what I've learnt from the stinky old man, fire rats are really vicious creatures that live in the West, whose coats are resistant to flames, being that they are fire rats and all. But the best part about them is that if a youkai were to wear it, the fur draws on the youkai's youki as if it was a living thing and repairs itself, regardless of the damage!" Miroku explained, excitement thrumming through his body as they warmed up to his favourite topic.

"Really?" Inuyasha asked, skeptical.

"REALLY! So how did you get it? Because I'm having a hard time seeing either your mum or grandfather fighting a bunch of fire rats to get them to volunteer their coats," Miroku asked sardonically, his excitement winding down as he could see that his friend did not believe him.

"I don't know. Kaa-san said that she opened the door and it was on the doorstep with my name tagged on it," Inuyasha said with a shrug as he stepped over the threshold of the magistrate's courthouse.

"Who would give you such a precious gift?" Miroku asked, puzzled since no one in the village could possible afford such a material.

"Don't know and quite frankly, I don't care," Inuyasha said, his tone icy as the bitter cold wind that blew outside the courthouse as he thought of possible family members out there abandoning his mother when she was pregnant with him. His silent glare silenced any further questions Miroku had.

-

"General! What are the troops numbering?" a brusque young man stepped into the room, sounding his question before the soldiers guarding the doorway could do more than salute.

"Your Highness… Prince Wincott… You shouldn't be here. Involving yourself in these matters is not befitting of a prince," the tired old man said with a sigh as he stood to in deference.

"Then what is?! Tell me, Kabaji!"

"Your Highness…" Kabaji made a silent gesture and immediately the soldiers filed out and closed the door behind them.

"Your Highness, you can't do this, your Highness, you can't do that!" Kaito said, mimicking the simpering voices of the rapidly becoming annoying ministers.

"That's all I've been told since my father passed on!" raged Kaito Wincott, crown prince of Silvana, homeland of the Dragon Keep,

"You're not King yet. Hence, you do not have the authority to command us to tell you anything. Currently, the council holds absolute power until your coronation," Kabaji said softly as he laid a wizen hand on Kaito's shoulder.

"Kabaji… I'm sorry for losing it with you… I didn't mean to," Kaito said, his tone apologetic.

"It's all right… You are my godson after all and I watched you grow up. I know you like the back of my hand, there is nothing you can do that will surprise me," Kabaji said with a slight smile.

"Perhaps you are right…" Kaito said amicably as he stood and left. After all, why argue when a brilliant plan was forming in his head.

-

"Sango! Behind you!"

A nimble figure leapt aside quickly to avoid the sharp incisors that slashed to her left. "Hiraikotsu!"

With a last angry bellow, the huge bear youkai toppled to the snowy ground, dead.

A rousing cheer rose from the village as they were finally rid of the horrible bear youkai that had been terrorising their village for the past week.

"Taijiya-san, thank you very much! In your honour, we will hold a feast for you!" the village head said gratefully, a rather rotund balding short man packed in layers of wool.

If she remembered correctly, he was the one who had cowered the moment the bear youkai had appeared even though the rest of the villagers had banded together to try and fend off the youkai just as the taijiya had arrived.

"No need to trouble yourself, we're just doing… Our job," Sango tried to halt the village head but it was as if he has turned a deaf ear and was presently scurrying off to make preparations.

"Don't mind our village head, we've always known that he was a coward and may not be very helpful when it comes to something physical, but he's got a good heart and a brilliant brain that has helped us to prosper. So, in return, we bear with his faults and eccentricities," one of the villagers volunteered as they watched the village head try to badger people to prepare a feast and Sango was surprised that even as they rolled their eyes, they acquiesced to his instructions.

With a roll of her own eyes, Sango plopped down and sat with the rest of her fellow demon slayers as they waited for their feast to be prepared.

She had joined this band of slayers once she had finished her magic training a year ago. It was against Meihou-obaasan's wishes that she return and rule Silvana, but she felt that she had to do something else to help. But as a price, they had made her swear never to use her abilities.

She knew that she was not cut out to rule Silvana since the day her father had passed away because all she wanted to do was be the one to physically deal the death blow to the Dark Lord to avenge her father's death. Nobody wanted a ruling monarch with a death wish; there would be no hope for them.

So she had reasoned it out with Kaito. She would be the one out in the field and he would be her back up. He would command the troops to fight at her back and protect her while she went on this suicide mission, not that she had told him about the suicide mission bit. No, Kaito would have flipped and refused to take over the throne if she had.

She had perfected her fire abilities in two years; her tutors were amazed at the speed of her progress. She had learnt all the required meditation techniques and how to summon her abilities in half the time taken by most of the Del and her tutors pronounced that there was nothing more that they could teach her and had left her fate up to her.

They had thought her a miracle child, a halfling that had mastered her abilities in half the time it took most Dels. But she knew better, her motivation was derived from nursing that deep set hatred all through her studies.

Two years of studying and one year of slaying any demons she had come across had yet to place the Dark Lord within her grasp and she ached to be face to face with her most hated adversary, to realise that sweet feeling of driving her sword through his blackened heart to avenge her father's death.

It had been four years since she had been back to the mountains. It reminded her of the time when her father had brought Kaito and her on his Dragon hunting journey in Andarwin.

Just thinking about it caused immense pain to well up in her chest and her eyes to burn with unshed tears. No! Now was not the time to weaken. She would save these feelings and bury them in the Dark Lord's chest along with her katana.

"Sango! Earth to Sango! Hello!" a fellow female taijiya stood directly in front of Sango waving her hand in front of Sango's face, "Lunch's ready!"

"Oh! Megumi! Sorry, I was just spacing out," Sango apologised and got up to join the rest of the taijiyas who were gathered around an overly laden table.

"Sure, no problem… Just don't make it a habit. Spacing out while on a mission is just a death wish," Megumi said over her shoulder as she walked ahead of Sango.

-

A tiny flame sputtered to life and flickered weakly, a lone soul braving the Darkness in the tiny room over-run with shadows. All around it, the shadows swayed from side to side, apparently fascinated with the idea of a little thing being able to stand against their Darkness. Like a king cobra hypnotising its prey, the shadows swayed, waiting for the prefect moment to strike when their prey was at its weakest.

Each time the flame seemed to weaken with the passing of a breeze, the shadows soared up, waiting to engulf the little blue flame left. Only to hurry back into the Darkness every time the minute flame blazed back to life.

Amused, the Naraku sat and watched the game his shadows played with the tiny flame he had started so that he could view his mirror.

"Kanna, bring it closer. I want to see what Kenji's legacies are doing," Naraku said, crooking his finger at the pale little girl who held a mirror in her arms almost as big as her.

"Who would you prefer to view first, my Lord," Kanna asked, turning her thoughts inwards and spreading them out with the aid of the mirror as she looked into the lives of Princess Sango and Prince Kaito.

"Show me the boy."

Almost immediately, the surface of the mirror fogged up and then burst into colour as it showed Kaito sitting on a chaise in a study staring into flames.

"The tiny princeling hardly seems to be a threat. Perhaps he could come in useful at a later date. A pawn, perhaps? The girl," amusement laced his tone as he gave a tiny flick of his wrist, indicating to Kanna to search for Sango.

The surface of the mirror cleared for a moment, allowing the opportunity to see his current form, the son of the Lord who had previously ruled this castle. He had allowed the boy to grow up and become strong before he decided to take over the body. He was rather glad to be rid of the decaying corpse of the soldier he had previously inhabited.

Admiring his rather good looks, Naraku primped in front of the mirror while waiting. It had been a while since he had gotten such a good looking host body; perhaps it was time to appreciate it while it lasted. Who knows when he would have the opportunity to procure another good looking host?

The boy had been a lot stronger than he had expected, fighting him at every turn. When he had first tried to take over the boy's body, he had been violently rejected. Not that that kept him out for very long.

Eventually, after feeding the boy bits of Darkness, the boy had become weak-willed and taking over had been almost like gliding over water.

The only reason Naraku had not tried to take over fully and kill the consciousness within was so that he could delight in the boy's strong emotions. The boy's self was still lurking somewhere within, watching through glass windows at the atrocities that Naraku made his body perform.

Like raping his sister repeatedly and then strangling the life out of her and just as the girl starts to turn blue, Naraku would let the boy's consciousness take over. The boy could not even kill his sister to spare her from suffering. No, the boy dropped his sister like a hot potato and ran to hide in the corner with his tail between his legs, all puns intended.

The depth of emotion produced was like a drugging wine that had been mixed with one too many cocktails of aphrodisiacs.

The physical pain of being taken, the humiliation, the horror as she watched her brother take her, the disillusionment and the SUFFERING!

Oh! The suffering! There was nothing sweeter on this Earth than for him to prolong their suffering. When he could feel their desire to die, when he felt their fighting spirits wane and get snuffed out. And especially when he knew they both felt dirty, unclean and tainted.

It hurt the boy to know that he was hurting his sister and that she hated him with every fibre of her being, especially the child she carried within her. Every time he saw her swollen body… He felt a perverse pride that it was his child, even though he knew that she was his sister. Then guilt, when she scurried from him and glared at him with all the rage and hatred she felt. And eventually, the self-loathing.

The complex mix of emotions… Hmn… So sweet, like a finely aged wine that only grew sweeter and tastier as time passed and flowed like a smooth blood-red river down his throat.

"The girl, my Lord," Kanna said woodenly as the surface of the mirror clouded over and revealed Sango at the village, eating with the villagers and her taijiya band, the dead carcass of the bear youkai in the background as a trophy.

"The girl has become more of a nuisance. Destroy her friends, but spare her. I want her to suffer," Naraku ordered as he watched Sango happily eating and drinking with everyone.

-

His Royal Highness, Prince Kaito Kohaku Wincott was little older than fourteen years of age, but already, he was a headstrong stubborn boy that if he lived to be crowned King, would be a great legacy left by Kenji.

But now, all he wanted to do was participate in a war that apparently did not require his participation. And he was not one to take it lying down. Although at the moment, he was lounging on the chaise in his father's study.

He had been sent back to the palace once his thirteenth birthday had passed and he had not expressed any abilities. No, it was not that he did not have one. He did, but it was just that he had promised his sister something. So he would willingly forgo magic training and be thought of as a Passive if that was what it took for him to protect his sister.

It has been a year since he last saw her when she had departed on what he felt was a mad-cap demon slaying mission. But at least she sent letters to tell him where she was. From her recent letter, he knew that she was in a village in the Andarwin Mountains.

Fiddling with his pendant, he pondered on the possible reasons that Sango-neechan had for constantly told him to keep his pendant hidden and keep it on all the time. Back then, he had obeyed her without questioning her reasons because… Well, she WAS older.

Now, he pondered further on the credibility of a story he used to tell, or at least what one of the servants had related to him by the slip of the tongue. They had said that he used to tell of an exciting story of a white Dragon saving him and the Dragonkin who had silver hair and was half demon. But the problem was, he did not remember!

Having examined his pendant recently, he felt in his gut that the childhood story he had told could be true. After all, even every lie had a grain of truth in it and supported by the evidence of his pendant, he felt that he had a solid case. If only those molly coddling fools for ministers would listen.

Frustrated by what he felt was ineptness by all his ministers; he was going to take matters into his own hands and find a way to help his sister.

Shimmying down a drainpipe proved a lot harder than he had expected from the cool slick way he had seen the village boys carry it off, but he was determined to leave the palace and go to Dragon Keep. He absolutely had to talk to Kizuya about a childhood tale he remembered telling of a silver-haired boy and a beautiful white dragon.

-

"SANGO!" a shriek rend the air, a split-second warning before Megumi erupted into a million pieces.

"MEGUMI!" Sango yelled, viciously attacking the youkai that had torn her friend to shreds. "HIRAIKOTSU!"

All around her people were dying, their screams and yells of horror were being cut off as they were mangled and mauled by youkai. Just a few hours ago, they had been feasting happily and then as they were inebriated with alcohol, the youkai army had hit.

There were too many youkai for their small taijiya band to defeat. Ten of them to hundreds upon thousands of youkai, where they had come from, no body knew. But many people were dying and she had this gut-sinking feeling that it had something to so with her.

Nearly all the taijiya had been annihilated and yet she was the only one standing. She had to look for opponents, none came to fight her. It was as if they had orders to kill everyone but her.

Eventually, too tired and too cold to even lift her large boomerang, a gift from her deceased taijiya friends, Sango sank to her knees in the blood drenched snowy white field, too emotionally dead to do anything but survey the damage around her.

Houses burned in the midst of winter and moans of pain and despair sounded through what was once the village. None of the other taijiyas had survived with the exception of her. Then, out of the nowhere, a woman walked out of the fire towards her.

As the woman neared, Sango could see that she was visibly a demon. Trying to stand, Sango could only sink helplessly again into the ground, using her Hiraikotsu for support.

"Don't bother. I'm not here to kill you but to deliver a message. My name is Kagura," the woman said, her tone monotonous and yet Sango could have sworn she saw regret and pain in her crimson eyes.

"What is it?" Sango asked, her question hissing out through her teeth, angry.

With a flick of her wrist, Sango watched as Kagura plucked a blood-red rose out of thin air, kiss it then drop it to the ground in front of her.

"With compliments from Naraku, the Dark Lord."

Sango could only see the red of the petals and nothing more. Her chest tightened and felt as though it would erupt any moment and so she let it out the only way she knew know. She set the rose on fire.

Unperturbed, Kagura whipped out a feather, which transformed and flew off.

-

As the light of day began to fade, Kojiro, the magistrate heaved a sigh of relief. He had granted most of the appeals of the families to let their sons continue in their family's chosen profession, however, one dispute had taken awfully long to resolve.

The Minogawa family had been dealing in textiles since their ancestor first settled into this village and they were a big family with five strong sons.

The Yamibutto family were not as good in rank or wealth. In one word, they were poor. They had just lost their patriarch, the sole bread winner in the family who dealt in direct competition with the Minogawa family and they only had daughters. All the Yamibutto wanted was for one of the Minogawa sons to work for them. They had even offered the hand of their youngest daughter, Jura.

All in all, the magistrate thought that the deal was rather good, considering that it was not a change in trade but rather, absorption of the Yamibutto family into the Minogawa family. There were no sons to carry on the Yamibutto name and the patriarch was deceased so there should have been no conflict, especially since the youngest daughter was the fairest amongst all of her sisters. And he had heard from a little birdie that Dankuro, the third son of the Minogawa family was fairly enamoured by her.

But the Minogawa family's patriarch, Rokaku, had been so adamant that none of his sons marry a daughter from the Yamibutto family who have been their arch rivals for generations. Kojiro almost chuckled when he had seen Dankuro's and Jura's fallen expressions.

They had argued for most of the afternoon and deep into the early evening and just when he had been about to intervene, Jura, somehow found the courage in her to approach Rokaku.

After a private conversation, in which he had seen Rokaku's expression go from stern to horrified to settle on resigned before Rokaku had announced, "Jura and Dankuro will be wed by nightfall tomorrow." With that final statement, he had impaled his third son with a glare that translated horrible pain before he had swept out of the courthouse in a huff.

Kojiro was perturbed by what Jura had whispered to Rokaku that had made him suddenly compliant to their request. But as he watched the young Dankuro wrap his arms around Jura is a protective fashion. He could only draw one conclusion. Jura was pregnant. That would explain Rokaku's sudden acquiescence.

Now, it was down to two last boys before he could retire to his cottage and possibly warm up before the evening's festivities.

"Inuyasha, approach," Kojiro said as he waited for the appeal. "What is your appeal?"

"I…" Inuyasha began, but broke off, his attention elsewhere as he started to scent the air.

"Well?" Kojiro asked, an eyebrow quirked, getting a little impatient at Inuyasha's delaying tactic.

"Yasha… What are you doing?" Miroku hissed, maintaining his smile while he jabbed Inuyasha in the ribs with his elbow.

"Shh!" Inuyasha said as he continued to sniff the air.

"Did you just shh me, boy?" Kojiro asked, his temper rising. All he wanted was to go back home! Was that too much to ask of the troublesome duo?

"I smell… I smell blood. A lot of blood. It's coming from the next range," Inuyasha said as he raced out of the courtroom. Mentally, he immediately called for Kagome. Even as a hanyou, there was no way he would be able to make it in a short enough time to save lives.

Smiling awkwardly at the silent courtroom, Miroku bowed and hightailed out of there, only to bump into Kagome.

With a snarl and a snap of her teeth, Kagome projected her thoughts to Inuyasha, "Watch it, you perverted slow-poke! Wait till I get my claws on you. You'll be chow by the time I'm done with you!" She had been easily annoyed for the last few years and not even Inuyasha could figure out why but he usually brushed it aside since it was only a few days of each month.

"Kagome says, "Watch it slow-poke!" Get on Roku, there are people who need our help," Inuyasha said, his voice sounded faraway. He was still distracted by the heavy scent of blood in the air and the density of the smell was making him feel light-headed.

"All right, if you say so," Miroku said, less than convinced that that was all that Kagome had said as he clambered on. Having grown up with the snarky Dragon, Miroku was sure she probably said more.

Either Inuyasha had grown too polite to tell him all or he was currently too distracted to relay the full message, which looked to the latter because he usually relished in watching Miroku squirm.

"Let's go, Kagome."

And soon they were airborne, heading towards the origin of the blood scent.

* * *

Writer's Note:

Well... I hope this chapter meets your satisfaction. I'm trying as steadily and as slowly as I can to end it with a good bang. So your support is much appreciated.

Thanks for reviewing so quickly GeorgieGirl999 and Love23.

I would appreciate it if more comments were left so I know how to proceed with the story. Thanks. .


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys... I apologise for the long wait and I thank you for sticking with me. Please read and review as usual!

Sugoi!, Don't worry, stick with the story and you'll see what happens.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Inu Yasha. All other characters with similar names or personalities are purely coincidence.

* * *

**Chp 8 - Their Life Altering Decision**

Huddled in a blanket on a foreign bed, Sango cried silent tears as she heard laughter flitting through the house and was reminded of how much she had enjoyed herself at the impromptu banquet at the village.

She remembered how Megumi had laughed hysterically until she was rolling on the snowy ground clutching her aching sides at a silly joke that Tanka had made. The memory brought a smile to her lips despite the still flowing tears.

Kyoshiro had asked her to dance, finally demonstrating his affection for her, an affection she would probably have returned if he were still alive. Perhaps she had only responded to his affection because he looked so similar to a little boy she had known when she was a child.

It was the eyes. They had been a brilliant amethyst that always somehow sparkled with mischief, which reminded her of how Miroku had looked when he had been peering up her skirt. Well, it was not exactly up her skirt since she had hiked it up herself in order to climb the tree to save her brother, but it had been rude of him to stare at her legs.

When she had woken up the day before, she had been in shock and in denial. More tears ran down her cheeks as she remembered the scene from yesterday, even as she slipped into a light doze.

-

"MEGUMI!"

Sango sprang awake as she dreamt about her friend exploding into a million pieces right before her eyes, panting, horror and pain clouding her mind.

As soon as she took stock of her surroundings, she realised that she had awoken to sunshine and quietness and feeling ill at ease, she jumped out of bed and rushed through the cottage yelling, "Megumi? Tanka? Kyoshiro? Anyone? Please, answer me!"

Bursting into the kitchen, she stumbled to a halt at the sight of the lone woman pounding a large mound of dough.

"Ah! Gomenasai! Have you seen the rest of my friends?" Sango asked, hoping and praying that her nightmare was just a nightmare and that the whole village along with the rest of her fellow taijiyas had not been massacred.

"Um… I think you need to sit down. You shouldn't be out of bed so soon. I'll go get my son," Izayoi said, startled at the sudden entrance of the girl she had been nursing for the last couple of days.

She had emerged from her room and seen a woman pounding away at a mound of dough and had reasoned with herself that since the woman was performing such a normal activity, it would mean that the village was safe and that perhaps the rest had gone to train while she rested.

As trepidation built within her with every passing second, she began to pace the length of the kitchen, trying to work off her anxiety.

She had not seen Inuyasha in the last six years since she was ten, but even then, nothing could make her forget his silver hair and ears. They were uniquely his. She had never come across another hanyou or a demon of a similar colouring. When she was younger, her hands had itched to play with the tiny appendages as they had wiggled on his head but she had not worked up the nerve to ask him. He was all grown up now and his physique was leaner and more muscular.

But the moment she had seen him burst through the back door, the first thought to cross her mind was to wonder how Miroku had turned out even though her worst fears were confirmed.

"Inuyasha? What am I doing here?" Sango asked, gesturing about her at his home as she bit her lip, trying to hold in tears.

"Whoa! Yasha! Don't just brake like that," a jovial voice sounded from behind him. Peeking around to see what had caused Inuyasha to come to a stand still. Miroku was confronted with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, "Hey gorgeous, how you doin'?" he asked with a cheeky grin, his mischievous amethyst eyes glinting with pleasure.

That was the last thing she heard as she sank into a dead faint.

-

"Wow! That's a compliment if I ever saw one, Yasha! A dead faint and all I asked was "How you doin'?" I didn't know it would have such a great effect. I mean, I've been practicing in the looking glass and all…But this! This just blows me away!" Miroku exclaimed, remembering his astonishment as he had watched almost in slow motion how Sango's eyes rolled back into her head and she had flopped onto the kitchen floor like a sack of rice.

"Sure. As if she would faint at the sight of his "charm". More like die from the overdose of it. If Roku blew his head up to be any bigger, I think he'll float into the clouds. At least then, I can have him for chow and no one will be any wiser. I think that would spare us all the horrible drivel he's been dishing out. I'm surprised his looking glass hasn't taken a hike yet," Kagome said, rolling her quick silver eyes as she stuck her head in the kitchen door.

"Kag… The three-way com is open. I'm pretty sure Roku heard all that you have planned for him," Inuyasha said wryly as he stuck a finger into his mother's curry and tasted it. Dishing out a large bowl, he signalled to Miroku to leave.

"Kags… My dear… I'm sure you don't mean to do all that, surely?" Miroku asked, nervously backing away from Kagome's long sinuous head further into the cottage.

"Don't be too sure Roku, don't be too sure," Kagome said with a snap of her teeth at Miroku's heels. Chuckling as she watched him scramble after Inuyasha, her head unable to follow any further into the house as the doorway was too small.

"Come now, Kagome. Off with you. You're blocking my doorway," Izayoi said as she poked Kagome in the side from outside the house as she waited patiently for the Dragon to exit her kitchen.

"Sorry Kaa-san," Kagome said apologetically as she backed out slowly of the doorway, making sure not to do any damage. Moving off, she walked to another side of the house to stick her head into.

Entering, Izayoi spotted her crock pot with its lid askew. Shaking her head, she made a turn and went out for more ingredients, knowing Inuyasha had been dipping in her pot again. And she had only been gone for a couple of minutes to get potatoes from the garden shed!

-

It was quite curious that Kagome was able to speak to Izayoi directly. She could not even do that with Miroku. Perhaps the only reason was that she could speak to Izayoi was because she had once when she was younger.

Her ability to project her thought to Miroku was a new development that Inuyasha had experimented with since he had been tired of relating her every quip and quibble about Miroku.

With the three-way communication, she was able to say anything and everything she liked without having Inuyasha mince her words to spare his friend. Not that he did that very often because like her, he loved to watch Miroku squirm.

Seeking help from Miroku's adopted grandfather also known as the Stinking Monk courtesy of Miroku, they had been able to find a common frequency, which they could send their thoughts along but the only catch was that Inuyasha had to be a bridge. It had been tough for Inuyasha and initially, he could not even last more than half an hour, after which, he got splitting headaches.

But as time passed, they got better at it and they could now go the whole day without him getting splitting headaches from being the bridge, instead, he got them from hearing their arguments.

-

It had been almost five years since she had a dream about her father. But this dream did not bode well with her.

In this dream, she had seen a black tunnel with light at the end. And suddenly, she could make out the familiar outline of the one person she missed the most, her father.

"Otou-san! Come back! Don't leave me!" Sango raced after her father, his figure fading away in the dimming light. At the same time, she could have sworn that she had heard her father say, "It's not your time yet. You still have a lot to do. Go back and protect your brother. He's in danger."

"OTOU-SAN!"

"Shh! Sango, it's all right. It's only a nightmare…" a soft voice whispered, startling her, even as it pushed her towards the bed insistently.

"Miroku? Is that you?" she asked, peering up at the blurry face in the dim candle light.

"Yes… Inuyasha and I are taking turns tonight; his mum is a little tired from the last three nights," Miroku said, his tone soothing as he tucked her in.

"It's been four days?" Sango asked, her eyes widening at the amount of time that had passed.

"Five, you stayed at the village doctor's hut for a day before he released you to us," Miroku whispered, stroking her hair, concerned for her. This was the fifth consecutive night that she had been having nightmares. Of course, it was perfectly normal for her to have them given the scene that they had found her in. Even he had the occasional nightmare.

When Kagome had circled the village from above, even from that height, he could see that the damage to the village was bad. In fact, bad was a nice way of putting it, all the houses were burning and the snow-covered ground was ridden with red splotches, too many to even count.

He and Inuyasha had gone through all the corpses littering the site where the village once stood, looking for survivors. Going by the state of the fire and the heat of the bodies, their deaths were not even past an hour.

They had stumbled across a small handful of survivors before they had found her. She had been lying unconscious in the thickest pool of blood, none of it hers, with one arm still slung around her large bone boomerang as if still trying to ward of enemies.

They had taken all the survivors back to the village for medical treatment before he and Inuyasha had gone back to begin the burial of the dead. They brought Miroku's grandfather along to perform the last rites.

It had been a bloody and gruesome death. No one understood or knew why, only that he and Inuyasha had come back bloody and spiritually battered. Miroku's grandfather had requested that both boys be given a week's respite to decide their career paths due to the catastrophe they had just witnessed. No one had argued.

Just remembering caused the bile to rise within his throat.

"Miroku? Miroku?" Sango called, wondering to where he had wandered off to, admiring his amethyst eyes that glittered most beautifully in the candle light.

"Huh? Oh, nothing, I just zoned out for a bit. You were saying?" Miroku asked, injecting false cheerfulness into his voice, putting on his most charming face.

"I… I need to talk to you and Inuyasha first thing tomorrow. It's important," Sango said softly, pain still burning a hole in her chest.

"Let's talk about it bright and early tomorrow. Now is not the time for this conversation where the Dark can prey on your darkest thoughts," Miroku said as he straightened her sheets and stood up.

"Goodnight Miroku. And thank you," Sango said, her voice slurring as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

-

"Good morning sleepyheads! Rise and shine. Nothing is going to be done unless you get out of bed," Izayoi said, bustling into their rooms and throwing open the curtains to let in the cold crisp winter air.

"Argh! Okaa-san! Do we have to?" Inuyasha grumbled, turning in his bed to face the wall.

"Yes. That nice girl Sango is already up and eating. Now, she looks ravenous to me, so if you want anything at all, you better hurry it up. Especially since I made ramen this morning… Miroku too!" Izayoi said as a passing remark, a smile sneaking across her lips as she heard her son swear and then rush to get ready. But not before he unceremoniously dumped his best friend off the bed onto the cold ground, leaving him to curse and swear as well.

Less than five minutes later, both Inuyasha and Miroku staggered into the kitchen, looking less than washed up and rather dishevelled. Not bothering to greet Sango, they both settled in their seats and began to slurp their ramen.

"Morning, aren't the two of you just look positively glowing?" Sango said with a quirk of an eyebrow at their state of dress, or rather, undress.

"Keh!" was all she got from Inuyasha as he continued to slurp his ramen.

"Nhn," was the reply she got from Miroku as he raised his blood shot eyes to meet hers.

"Don't worry about them. They just aren't morning people. Wait till they've eaten, then, they'll be about as alive as the next person," Izayoi said nonchalantly as she doled out more ramen for the boys.

Once the two boys were fed and slightly more awake, all of them just sat around the table, as if they were waiting for something.

Fidgeting and not knowing how to broach the subject that she had been thinking about since last night, Sango felt a question burst out of her mouth, "What are you waiting for?"

"Well… We were sort of hoping you'd tell us. But once you were ready, of course," Inuyasha said bluntly, not bothering to mince his words. Perhaps he had been hanging around Kagome a little too long.

"Oh," was all Sango managed to get out, the wound still too raw for her to decide if she wanted to talk about it. But she remembered Otou-san saying when she was a kid that if she did not talk about it, then, it would make her sick.

Taking a deep breath, she spilled everything. The whole story, her pain, her grief and her horror and all the while, the two boys just listened. And so did apparently Izayoi as she discovered when a warm cup of tea was pushing into her shaking hands.

Finally, she looked at both Miroku and Inuyasha in the eyes and asked the most life altering question she could ask of these two individuals.

"Will you go to war with me?"

-

Inuyasha felt his heart stop the moment he heard Sango voice the question. Though his mother's reaction had been barely detectable to the human eye, he had seen her flinch before she had schooled her features and then proceeded to pour tea for all of them, before she walked out of the kitchen into the chilly mid-day weather outside the cottage.

"Sango… What you ask of us… Can you give us a day to think about it? You will know our answer at the coming-of-age ceremony at the courthouse tomorrow; when Miroku and I are due to give our reply. We were given a week's grace after… Can you wait until then?" Inuyasha asked hesitantly, unwilling to give her a reply until after he had spoken to his mother and grandfather.

"Yes… Until tomorrow," Miroku said, his expression also slightly troubled as he refused to meet Sango's gaze, fidgeting with a purple glove wrapped with a rosary he had taken to wearing a fortnight earlier, after his eighteenth birthday.

"Of course. I wouldn't think of anything less of you. I understand that you both have people that depend on you," Sango said, a little disappointed by the hesitancy in both boys, but she understood, since she had been brought up to think as the people, of the people and for the people.

-

"Kaa-san…" Inuyasha stepped out into the overcast daylight only to be enveloped by the chill of the mid-winter season.

Without replying, Izayoi continued to hack futilely at the frostbitten soil with her trowel even though all the salvageable vegetables had long been dug up by Inuyasha and stored in the garden shed.

Going up to his mother, Inuyasha gently took the trowel from her frozen fingers and pulled her to her feet. With a choking sob, Izayoi enveloped him in a bone-crushing grip and sobbed into his chest. Inuyasha could only wrap his arms around his mother as she poured all her tears out and comfort her saying, "I'll be fine, kaa-san. I'm a hanyou. I'll be fine."

With a hiccup, Izayoi pulled away Inuyasha and looked into his amber eyes. Stroking his hair and ears like she use to do when he was a little boy, she whispered with nostalgia, "That's the last thing your Otou-san said to me, the last time I saw him before he passed away. I'll be fine, Izayoi. I'm a Taiyoukai. I'll be fine. Then, the very next moment, he was dead."

Inuyasha stared dumbfounded as his mother continued to stroke his hair. She had never once answered his questions when he had asked about his father and the rest of his kin. Always she said to him, "Don't ask me, Yasha. It hurts too much". And after a while, he had just stopped asking. The only thing he knew was that he looked like his father since she always remarked so when she stroked his hair and ears.

He had assumed that his father had been forced to abandon his mother when she was pregnant since his mother had once remarked that the rest of his father's family had disapproved the match between human and youkai as much as the humans had disapproved. But never in a million years would he imagine his father was dead.

"Do you know what killed him? Not who. What. A lowly life-scum of a human, that's what! Your Otou-san was fighting a terrible youkai to save that mangy human's life and what did he do? He turned around and stabbed your Otou-san while he was down and injured. He even came back to claim the kill! Like your Otou-san was some sort of animal," Izayoi said, her eyes glinting with hate, still livid after nearly two decades.

"Kaa-san… It's…" Inuyasha began about to tell his mother that she did not have to relive painful memories, but was unable to complete his sentence before he was cut off by Izayoi.

"Hush! Do you want to know the story or not? I hated that man since the day he had set foot in the village. I begged your Ojii-chan to turn him away, but as a compassionate village chief in the midst of winter, he could not turn away a starving man. So that man, Ito, lived in the village. He tried to wrap his oily fingers around me, always trying to get me alone…" Izayoi suppressed a shudder at the memory before going on.

"Your Otou-san saved me from one of his absolutely unwanted advances. But Ito had already married into the village so I could not go to your Ojii-chan and ask him to turn Ito out. But I was happy after meeting your Otou-san, so I thought that I could suffer his presence as long as your Otou-san was there. We were happy and your Ojii-chan had begun to accept our union but Ito managed to turn the villagers against us. They tried to murder us by setting the house on fire. Then, the news that your Otou-san was dead. I cried for a whole day and night before I exacted my revenge," Izayoi said, a vengeful glee in her voice and her eyes.

"I killed the sorry bastard while he stared at me with horror in his eyes. And I loved every minute of it, to know that such a pile of shit was leaving the Earth made me feel better. But it didn't bring your Otou-san back. And I realised that I left Suki husbandless and her children fatherless. I'm such a horrible person," Izayoi said, her voice a whisper now, filled with the horror of her past actions.

"Kaa-san… I never knew. But I'll really be fine. I've got Kagome. And Miroku although he's not very much help, but I'll be fine," Inuyasha comforted his mother as she burrowed her face into his haori to warm her cold body. "Kaa-san, lets go in now, you're freezing."

"Promise me, Yasha. Promise me that you'll never enjoy killing. It's a horrible thing that takes away something in you when you enjoy a kill, leaving you hollow. Promise me," Izayoi demanded firmly, her eyes searching Inuyasha's concerned amber orbs as she gripped the front of his haori tightly.

"I promise kaa-san. But I haven't even said that I was going yet," Inuyasha promised, his tone incredulous as he pried his mother's death grip off his haori.

"I know you. You're like your father. You'll go even if I tried to stop you, because it is the right thing to do," Izayoi said, shaking her head as she turned and entered the house. "I've got to go to the market to buy the ingredients for lunch," she muttered, wiping her tears before she stopped and asked over her shoulder, "You'll be careful, right?"

"Yes kaa-san. I will," Inuyasha replied, a small smile curling his lips. His mother knew him too well.

"Good. Don't worry about Jii-chan, I'll tell him," Izayoi said, giving her his blessing before she vanished into the cottage, leaving Inuyasha in the garden wondering about the rest of his relatives and where his haori came from.

-

Entering his adoptive grandfather's room, the pungent aroma of aging sake assailed Miroku's senses before the sight of strewn sake bottles astounded him. But unlike always, he did not comment. Choosing instead to wait calmly by the door until his grandfather was sober enough to receive him.

"What's wrong, Miroku?" the old monk asked, opening an eye to look at him then hiccupping slightly before he guzzled sake as if it was water.

"Ji-ji, I want to know the truth. I know I said that I didn't care before, but now, I want to know everything behind the Kazana and my family history before I make an important decision," Miroku said, looking his grandfather in the eye, uncharacteristically serious.

"Well, it's a rather long story and an old man like me could get thirst…" Miroku's grandfather was immediately silenced when from within his sleeves, Miroku produced two large bottles of sake.

Seeing the glint in the old man's eyes at the sight of the bottles, Miroku returned them to his sleeves saying, "After the story."

"Miroku, you wound my heart. But very well, it is time you know anyway," the old monk said somewhat sober as he sat up.

"Two hundred years ago, your great-great-grandfather, Mashiro, fought in the Civil war. I'm sure you know about the Civil war, right? I may be a drunk, but I definitely saw to your education," at Miroku's nod, the old monk continued.

"He was about your age when he was sent as part of a secret team to assassinate Naraku. He had managed to infiltrate Naraku's keep and was about to land the killing blow when he said that he was struck unconscious from behind. Apparently, there had been a traitor in the team sent. Who, Mashiro did not know, but we can't be certain either as he was the only one to come back alive but cursed," the old monk said as he gestured to Miroku to surrender one of the two bottles.

With a fresh cup of sake, the old monk continued, "Mashiro said that when he came to, he saw Naraku standing in front of him and he was in chains. Then, Naraku grabbed his hand and with a spearhead, pierce his flesh. With his blood flowing, Naraku cursed him and all his sons. Whispering into his ear the horrors of the Kazana and what it would eventually do to him. Naraku said and I quote, "This wind tunnel is what I curse you with, an affliction for your most precious son and all sons who bear your blood in generations to come. This tunnel will grow with use and through time and will consume your body so that there will be nothing left of you, body, mind or soul. Each son will inherit upon death. Appreciate my kindness in sparing all your sons except one." And then Naraku laughed a hideous cackle that grated on the nerves and Mashiro passed out. The next thing he knew, he was in a desert. The wound had healed and no longer bled but was now a vortex of wind. By chance, Mashiro discovered that he could seal it using a strip of his monk robe and his rosary. The rest as they say is history," the old monk ended.

"You kept referring to Mashiro as if you knew him," Miroku asked, pouring the sake as the old man gestured.

"You could say that… I was your father's childhood friend. Your grandfather used to tell the tale of Mashiro pretty often. Especially after he inherited the Kazana," the old monk said, tossing back his cup of sake before gesturing for another to be poured.

"What does it mean to be consumed body, mind and soul?" with a roll of his eyes, Miroku poured another cup.

"The Kazana will grow bigger and eventually, it will suck you into the tunnel and there will be nothing left of you except a hole in the ground where you once stood. I watched your grandfather get absorbed. He was in his nineties, but he hardly used it. He only wanted to live longer, the same with your father; he was about eighty-five two weeks ago," the old monk slurred, Miroku could see that the sake was finally getting to the old man, so he diluted it a little. He still had more questions to ask and he was wanted sober answers.

"That means that my father had me when he was SIXTY?!" Miroku asked, astounded.

"What can I say? Maybe that's where your lecherous hand came from. You are his youngest son with his… Um… Probably fifth wife, she's really young. I think half his age when he married her," the old monk shook his head muttering, "Some guys have all the luck."

"And here I thought I got it from you. Nurture versus nature," Miroku grumbled.

"What? Anyway, he sent you to live with me when you were but a baby so that there will be no favouritism. I think he was trying to kill off the Kazana by allowing no male heirs living in proximity with it, something about the favourite son inheriting it. All your brothers have been scattered to the four winds. No sisters. Now, can you stop diluting my sake and give me the other bottle?" the old monk asked, suddenly sharp.

"Hai, ji-ji," Miroku sighed and handed over the other bottle. The old man could be so sharp when it came to sake. Turning, Miroku exited the room, leaving the old man to his excesses. At least he had his answers.

-

"Kagome… Will you fight with me?" Inuyasha asked, as he leant against her huge bulk, staring at the white clouds that rained snow on them.

"Of course, Yasha. Don't be silly. You're my Dragonkin. I'll always be with you," Kagome said as she nuzzled his arm. She had known that he would fight the moment he had returned from the destroyed village. She had seen the horror in his eyes and his swirling emotions had gushed along their telepathic link to her like a rapid waterfall.

-

The next day, Miroku and Inuyasha trudged to the courthouse in silence. So different from the first time that they had gone when there was nothing weighing on their decision.

As Miroku and Inuyasha stood before the magistrate, the whole village had turned up to listen to the occupation that the troublesome duo had chosen. They had gotten along in relative peace and calm with Inuyasha and his perturbing Dragon although there were moments of unease when Inuyasha had Kagome that had led to jealousy. But that was in the past.

Kojiro looked upon the two boys with a kindly expression. The last time they had been here, he had been a mite irritated at the cold weather and the long day. But he did realise that it was an important time for all the males of their village.

"Inuyasha and Miroku, what have you decided to do with your life?" Kojiro asked, fully expecting that the two would choose an occupation worthy of their unusual talents.

He had watched both boys grow up and he knew their quirks. Inuyasha was strong and talented with the sword although he did not have any official training; he had practiced sparring with Miroku. Perhaps in the blacksmith shop? Kojiro knew that Teitsu was getting on in years and he did not have a son to carry on the business.

Miroku on the other hand would probably end up a monk. Of that, he had no doubts. He had seen first hand how powerful the boy's spells were and they would need his aid once his grandfather passed away. And at the rate the old man was consuming sake, he did not doubt that it would be soon. The old man contributed to almost half the sake consumed in the village.

"Sir… I'm begging your pardon, but… We feel that there is not much that we can do in the village to help with the problems in the outside world. And so… " Miroku began, not knowing how to continue. Furtively, he looked to Inuyasha to see if the hanyou had anything to add.

"We want to join the war. Under Princess Sango," Inuyasha said firmly, looking at Kojiro first then Sango in the eye.

Sango was glad upon hearing the confirmation of both boys, she would have loyal allies to fight along her side, looking at Inuyasha, she mouth a silent thank you, only to find all eyes suddenly on her and murmurs swelled in volume.

Then she realised what Inuyasha had implied upon using her title and acknowledging her presence. He was using her as an excuse! Curses upon him! Glaring at Inuyasha who smugly returned with a saccharinely sweet smile, she approached the magistrate's dais.

"I am Princess Sango Delcato Wincott of Silvana and I am glad to accept the services of Miroku and Inuyasha who have volunteered to fight for my cause. I appreciate the gesture of this village in the mountains of Andarwin and will remember you for the contribution of your two finest males in my hour of need," Sango said resolutely as she presented her jade crest for all to see, knowing that none may refute her claim over Inuyasha and Miroku now that they were sworn under her services.

"I… Yes… Well… Congratulations the two of you. I hope that you will make us proud," Kojiro said, flabbergasted and obviously knowing that he could not make a scene in front of Royalty. And the Princess had been here the whole week! Oh my, he thought, feeling slightly faint that she had not been welcomed in an honour befitting Royalty.

The three of them turned and walked from the courtroom, or rather, Sango stalked out of the room with Inuyasha and Miroku following closely behind her heels.

"I cannot believe that you just did that! You made use of my title!" Sango said as she stormed out into the snowing courtyard.

"Well… Miroku thought of it. He said that if we used your title, there was no way the magistrate could say anything to make us stay in the village. And you DO want us to help you, right? Unless of course we were mistaken?" Inuyasha asked, quirking a silver brow.

"I… Argh! You guys are the worst friends a Princess could ever have! And also the best!" Sango said, exasperated and yet glad as she hugged Inuyasha and Miroku in turn.

"Yasha…" came Kagome's warning voice, a little too late as Inuyasha saw Sango stiffen.

"HENTAI!" Sango yelled before she gave Miroku a slap.

A little dazed, Miroku commented, "She's honed her technique," before he slumped over unconscious.

"Roku… You'll never change," Inuyasha muttered as he heaved his friend's dead weight and trotted after Sango.

* * *

Writer's Note:

I just love cliffhanger endings. Don't you? Although this isn't much of a cliffy.

Thanks again for reading. And please review.


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